The White House snapped back at South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Monday after she made a bizarre call in a TV interview for the president’s exiled German shepherd commander to be put down following a series of biting incidents.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued the unusually sharp response after Noem made the comment on Sunday as she tried to keep a lid on the pet issue, which observers are already saying could get her off Donald Trump’s list of vice presidential candidates could wipe out.
Days ago, Jean-Pierre called revelations that Noem had shot her own farm pup Cricket into a gravel pit immediately after the animal killed chickens from a neighbor’s flock “sad.”
“When we heard last week, obviously like all of you, in her book that she had killed her puppy, you heard me say that was very sad. We find her comments yesterday disturbing,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called it “disturbing” and “absurd” after South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem suggested euthanizing President Biden’s dog commander (who has left the White House)
‘We find them absurd. And here – this is a country that loves dogs. And you have a leader who talks about culling and killing dogs. And that is a disturbing statement. I’d tell her she should probably stop digging herself into a hole.”
It was a starkly direct comment for the press secretary, who often tries to dodge volatile questions by referring to government agencies or invoking rules that she says prevent her from risking an answer.
Her words prompted reporters to call for more follow-up reports, including on the status of commander, who left the White House last fall after a series of disturbing incidents involving Secret Service members.
“The commander lives with relatives,” she said.
Her response came next Noem suggested President Joe Biden‘s dog Commander must be put down for his aggressive behavior in another stunning defense of the shooting death of her 14-month-old puppy.
The South Dakota Republican said she told the story about the murder of her farm dog Cricket because “people need to understand who I am.”
At the end of her book, in which she told the story of shooting and killing the dog, Noem suggested that Biden’s German Shepherd commander be put down, writing that the dog should “say hello to Cricket.”
She went a step further on Sunday, telling CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan that she thinks it would be best to put down the president’s dog, which was removed from the White House complex after a series of attacks .
Prepared: Jean-Pierre was ready with an answer when a reporter asked about Noem’s comments at Monday’s White House press conference
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem reiterated his proposal to euthanize President Joe Biden’s dog commander
Biden’s German Shepard commander was removed from the White House complex after multiple reports of biting incidents
“Joe Biden’s dog attacked 24 Secret Service people,” Noem said. “So how many people is enough to be attacked and dangerously injured before you make a decision about a dog.”
She added, “That’s the question the president has to answer for.”
Several reports emerged of how the commander exhibited aggressive behavior toward staff and specifically posed safety concerns and bite risks to Secret Service agents.
However, she sidestepped Brennan’s question about whether she thought Commander “should be shot.”
Noem said she properly cared for her “untrainable” dog by taking Cricket to a gravel pit and shooting her after aggressive behavior, such as killing the neighbor’s chickens and trying to bite her.
Critics argue that Noem, who shot her dog while her children were at school, could have rehomed the dog or surrendered it to a shelter that might have been better equipped to train the animal.
Noem details a story about shooting and killing her ‘dangerous’ 14-month-old farm puppy Cricket (not pictured) in her upcoming book
Noem’s book No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward hits shelves May 7. The release follows weeks of criticism after an excerpt was published in The Guardian, in which the governor told a 20-year-old man the story of killing her family’s farm dog.
“The reason this story is in the book – because people need to understand who I am and some of those tough decisions,” Noem told Brennan on Sunday as she explained why she included the story of the decision to kill Cricket.
Noem’s chances of being selected as Donald Trump’s vice president also severely diminished after the story broke.