Local Paper Busts Puppy-Killing GOP Gov For False Claim She Met Infamous Dictator
AP Photo/Jack Dura, File
The Dakota Scout, a local newspaper from South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) ‘s home state, found a few holes in a story about her meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in Noem’s upcoming book (not including the hole she put in her dog’s head).
Noem is set to promote her upcoming book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward, ahead of its May 7 release, and she will surely continue to defend her decision to murder her puppy Cricket. But her Kim Jung Un anecdote might also need defending, namely why she claimed to have met the dictator while she was a member of Congress when such a meeting was highly unlikely. The Scout did some digging.
Here is the passage in question:
Through my tenure on the House Armed Services Committee, I had the chance to travel to many countries to meet with world leaders. I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. I’m sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I’d been a children’s pastor, after all). Dealing with foreign leaders takes resolve, preparation and determination. My experiences on those many foreign trips made me a better member of Congress and a stronger governor. It allowed me to hone my deal-making skills, which play a crucial role in leadership.
As a former member of Congress, Noem’s travel records are available to the public, and the Scout knew where Noem was during her time on the Armed Services Committee. They were also able to crosscheck that with Un’s travel timeline:
Noem served on the House Armed Services Committee from 2013-2015. During that period, committee members including Noem visited China in 2014. But there is no record of Kim being in China then. After assuming the role of supreme leader of North Korea in 2011, Kim did not leave North Korea until 2018, says University of Notre Dame professor and North Korea expert George Lopez.
That timeline, along with Kim’s preference to operate through proxies, makes Noem’s account nearly impossible, Lopez said.
“I don’t see any conceivable way that a single junior member of Congress without explicit escort from the U.S. State Department and military would be meeting with a leader from North Korea,” said Lopez, an expert and published author on the country. “What would have been so critical in his bag of tricks that he would have met with an American lawmaker, this one distinctively?”
The Scout also quoted “a longtime, high-level Capitol Hill staffer who worked on the House Armed Services Committee during the period in which Noem says she met Kim,” who said the story was “bullshit.”
Noem’s spokesman, Ian Fury, told Politico: “We’ve been made aware that the publisher will be addressing conflated world leaders’ names in the book before it is released.”
