Kristi Noem’s team excised the dog-killing story from her first book: Report

politics

From Isabel Keane

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem tried to tell the story of how she shot her dog in her first book, published two years ago — but her publishing team cut the anecdote because they feared it would damage her brand.

Noem, 52, has been in the headlines for more than a week since excerpts from the tome “No Going Back” detailed how the Republican executed a 14-month-old wirehaired dog named Cricket, which Noem wrote because he “hated him “. Bad behavior made him “untrainable” as a hunting dog.

Cricket’s story was included in a draft of Noem’s “Not My First Rodeo: Lessons from the Heartland,” which was published in 2022, two people involved in the project told Politico.

Then, as now, Noem wanted to include the story because she felt it showed her determination as a leader. However, her team at the renowned publisher Twelve of the Hachette Book Group warned against this.

A host of agents, editors, publicists and even the governor’s ghostwriter all agreed that the story was in poor taste and would give her a bad reputation.

While the cricket saga was cut from “Not My First Rodeo,” Noem worked with a different team at Hachette’s conservative-leaning Center Street label on “No Going Back,” which hit shelves Tuesday.

The dog controversy, which sparked bipartisan outrage and all but destroyed Noem’s chances of becoming Donald Trump’s vice president, led to this The governor should do damage control.

“If you read the book, you’ll see that this was something that happened 20 years ago, and this book is full of vulnerable stories and painful decisions that I made,” Noem told Elizabeth Vargas Reports Monday night. from NewsNation. “And at that point I was faced with a choice between protecting my children and the people who were in our lives and a dangerous animal that was killing livestock and attacking people.

“And I want people to know when they read this story that they understand that this is a story that my political opponents have wanted to use against me for years,” she added. “I wanted them to know the truth. I wanted them to hear it in my words that most politicians would run away from the truth. And they would run away from difficult decisions. I don’t do both. I wanted people to know the truth. And I want them to know that I have not shifted my responsibility to someone else.”