Fox News host Greg Gutfeld tore into South Dakota Governor Kristi Noemafter a last-minute interview cancellation, delivering a scathing comedic rant complete with a mock interview at Noem's expense, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Gutman kicked off the segment of Tuesday's show by telling his audience that over the weekend, "I did something I rarely do. I read a guest book for a segment we had planned. It's called No Going Back by Kristi Noem."
"Who knew the title was referring to this show?" the TV personality quipped. He went on to say that the governor — who has become embroiled in controversy after revealing that she once killed her puppy in a leaked excerpt of her memoir — "blame[d] the weather" for her absence.
"I don't believe it," Gutfeld confessed. He then made a series of canine-themed puns, saying: "I think it's just a little late to keep her on a short leash. I'd hope she'd reconsider but I'm not going to sit up and beg. At any rate, every dog has its day, it's just not May 7, 2024."
The host continued his roast, declaring he would not let the no-show "waste my time, so we're moving forward with the interview."
"Standing in for Kristi Noem is somebody she wished she had listened to before she wrote the stupid book, Dana Perino," Gutfeld announced as he introduced the Fox political commentator and former White House press secretary under George W. Bush.
"So Dana, AKA Governer Noem, did you write the book yourself?" he asked Perino in jest.
"You know, that's a great question for someone who wrote the book, and I don't think I will dignify your question with a response when there are so many other important issues in the world, like animal cruelty," Gutfeld's mock guest responded, which was met with a burst of laughter from the host and audience.
Following outrage from the left and right over the puppy-killing tale, Noem sparked skepticism when another story from the book surfaced in which she recalled meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in 2014. When questioned about the validity of her claim on NewsNation, Noem admitted, “This anecdote shouldn’t have been in the book, and as soon as it was brought to my attention, I made sure that that was adjusted.”
Her response drew further backlash as pundits argued that the governor seemed unaware of the book's content, despite being seen in social media posts narrating the audiobook.
The South Dakota Searchlight mused that perhaps Noem "relied on a ghostwriter so heavily that she didn't read her own book before it went to the printer."
During one of Gutfeld's mentions of Noem on Tuesday, he mockingly referred to her as "the author — sorry, I mean the person whose name is on the book."
As he continued his faux interview, he said to Noem's proxy, Perino, "I noticed that you seemed not to know what was in the book, yet you voiced the audio for the book. Did you ever read the book?"
"I said some words that were written about me, and they were in a certain order of, they call them sentences, and so I read those aloud," Perino joked in response. "I don’t know if that means I read the book, though."
No Going Back was released on May 7.
"Would you blame — a lot of controversies here — the ghostwriter, the editor, the publisher? Was it their fault?" Gutfeld asked.
"Well, a little-known fact," Perino responded, joking that "another one of my dog's, his name was Ghostwriter. And I killed him this morning."