Noem doubles down on killing dog in apparent threat against Biden's dog Commander

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem doubled down on her decision to shoot and kill her 14-month-old dog, Cricket, by seemingly suggesting that President Joe Biden's German shepherd, Commander, should meet a similar fate. 

Noem talks multiple times in her upcoming book, "No Going Back," about killing her female wire-haired pointer puppy, which she says she "hated" for being "untrainable" and "dangerous to anyone she came in contact with."

CBS News reporter Margaret Brennan on Sunday asked Noem about the incident, stating: "At the end of the book, you say the very first thing you would do if you got to the White House ... is you'd make sure Joe Biden's dog was nowhere on the grounds, Commander say hello to Cricket. Are you doing this to try to look tough? Do you still think that you have a shot at being a VP?"

"Joe Biden's dog has attacked 24 Secret Service people. So how many people is enough people to be attacked and dangerously hurt before you make a decision on a dog?" Noem responded. "That's the question that the President should be held accountable to."

Brennan responded: "You're saying he should be shot?"

Noem, who was considered a front-runner for the position of former President Donald Trump's 2024 running mate, responded by defending her decision and saying that the Republicans who are criticizing her are the same ones who did so over her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I made a difficult choice," she also said. "Would you make a choice between your children or a dangerous animal? And I think I would ask everybody in the country to put themselves in that situation."

After Commander had multiple biting incidents, he was rehomed in October 2023.

Noem's incident with Cricket is not the only questionable part of the book. 

During "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Brennan pressed Noem about whether she met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after a passage in the book said she did.

"As soon as this was brought to my attention, I certainly made some changes and looked at this — this passage — and I've met with many, many world leaders, I've traveled around the world. As soon as it was brought to my attention, we went forward and have made some edits," Noem said.

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