In her new book, "No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward," South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem describes, in detail, the time she shot and killed a puppy on a farm.
Noem writes, "I hated that dog…. I had to put her down."
Critics of the far-right Republican governor, who is being mentioned as a possible running mate for presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, are wondering why she included that anecdote in her book — what was the point?
READ MORE: 'I hated that dog': Kristi Noem recalls taking family pup to gravel pit and killing it
Never Trump conservative Charlie Sykes offered a possible explanation during a Monday, April 29 appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Noem, Sykes argued, might have thought that the dog-shooting story would impress Trump.
Sykes told "Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, "I think that is the most extraordinary part about all of this — that she thought this would be a plus for her. Look, this book is a campaign book. It is a resume to be Donald Trump's vice president. And she thought it was a good idea to include this story —let's tell this short about myself, how I took this puppy and shot him in the gravel pit."
The conservative journalist/author continued, "So, why would she have done this? The obvious explanation is she thought that Donald Trump would like it. She thought that this would be a net-positive for her. I could imagine her buddy Corey Lewandowski saying, 'No, put it in, Kristi, because you know that Donald Trump wants the people who are willing to do the tough, dirty, nasty things that are necessary."
READ MORE: It's a 'tragedy' not to force rape victims to give birth: Kristi Noem
Sykes went on to say that "this does say a lot that Kristi Noem put this in the book and did not think it would be a net negative in the mind of Donald Trump."
Sykes argued, "Why would she have thought that? Well because, increasingly, brutality is the point — not just cruelty, but brutality. Donald Trump has a fetish for this. He talks about shooting shoplifters, extrajudicial murders of drug dealers."
Scarborough didn't disagree with Sykes' explanation. The former GOP congressman, also a Never Trump conservative, lamented that Noem's anecdote underscores "the grotesqueness of the conservative movement" in the age of Trump.
"This is virtue-signaling for Republicans," Scarborough told Brzezinski and Sykes. "This is virtue-signaling: I shot, in cold blood, a puppy in a gravel pit."
READ MORE: 'Team Trump approved': National Republican Committee now fundraising on dog-killing book
Watch the full video below or at this link.
