Christian Smith
Republican senators say South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s (R) viability as a vice presidential candidate has gone up in smoke after she admitted to shooting a 14-month-old puppy, and they are looking for other candidates to complete the former President Trump’s ticket.
Republican lawmakers who have spoken to Trump say he will be “strategic” in his selection and that loyalty will be an important consideration.
Several Republican senators are praising Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) as their choice for Trump’s running mate.
These lawmakers argue that Trump should pick someone who is black, Hispanic or female to broaden the Republican ticket’s appeal to key demographic groups in this year’s election.
And many would like Trump to pick a running mate who can reassure traditional and moderate Republicans who didn’t vote for him in the primaries or who stayed home in 2020.
But GOP senators say Noem, who was previously thought to be on the short list of potential vice presidential candidates, wrecked her chances after revealing she shot a 14-month-old German pointer named Cricket because he misbehaved.
“She’s done, a lot of drama,” said a Republican senator who remains in contact with Trump.
The senator said Trump has expressed interest in North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) and spoken approvingly about his moderate stance on abortion, an issue Democrats want to bring to the forefront.
Burgum, who had a short run in the presidential primaries, also has a net worth of more than $1.1 billion, putting him in an elite tier in terms of personal wealth.
Trump spoke disapprovingly of Kari Lake, according to the source, because she lost her 2022 gubernatorial bid in Arizona and is now seen by GOP Senate strategists as having a difficult path to winning Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s seat ( I-Ariz.), who is retiring.
“I think he will want to have someone who doesn’t overshadow him, who is loyal to him, who brings him something. That’s why I think Tim Scott will be an attractive choice for him, because I think Tim is very loyal, very talkative and intelligent,” the senator said.
Noem has struggled in recent days to control the damage even as her stock dwindled, arguing that the dog was “extremely dangerous.”
But his explanations do not please his Republican colleagues.
“I think shooting a puppy is very difficult to explain to someone, and I think it hurt her a lot,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who was the GOP nominee for president in 2012.
Other Republican senators expressed shock and disbelief that Noem would shoot a young dog for unruly behavior that many dog owners can relate to. And they are surprised that she demonstrated a lack of political judgment in revealing the incident in her new book.
“Bipartisan outrage! I was surprised that for the first time there wasn’t a Blue America, there wasn’t a Red America, there was an America,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said of the flood of criticism and condemnation of Noem’s decision to put under cricket .
“This is crazy. Why would you do that to a puppy? It’s crazy,” he said.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (RW.Va.), a member of the Senate GOP leadership team, was also completely stunned by the revelation.
“I can’t imagine this, doing this. I was very shocked when I read it,” she said.
Noem included the story in her book, “No Going Back: The Truth about What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” to illustrate her willingness to make tough decisions.
Noem described what led to her decision to kill the dog, which she hoped could be trained to hunt pheasants. The dog ran afoul of the governor when she ruined a hunt by “going crazy with excitement, chasing all those birds and having so much fun.”
The dog, according to Noem, then committed the greater sin of killing several chickens belonging to a local family and whipping her to bite her when she tried to restrain them.
But for GOP lawmakers, the disobedient behavior did not rise to the level of a capital offense, even in the eyes of colleagues in Noem’s home state.
“I know one thing: Dogs, puppies, are very popular,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who added that South Dakotans love their dogs as much as other Americans.
“Dogs are part of the family. We have dogs that behave badly and in many cases it is because of training,” he said. “For those of us who hunt, we love our hunting dogs. And when we go hunting with other people, we tell them, ‘Look, look out. You don’t shoot any pheasants on the ground because we don’t want you to come near one of our little dogs.’”
Rounds, who initially supported Scott for president and only indirectly supported Trump in March when he said he would support the Republican presidential nominee, said it would be wise for Trump to choose Scott or Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) as his running mate of sheet metal.
He thinks either of these two options could help motivate Republicans who aren’t big Trump fans to vote for the Republican ticket in November.
Rounds said that “moderate Republicans who might otherwise not even vote” could be “brought back based on who [Trump] asks” to join him on the ticket, thinking about his running mate’s experience – like Cotton’s on national security issues.
“I think Tim Scott would be an excellent choice,” he said. “I think Tom Cotton would be an excellent choice, he brings huge national defense capabilities.”
A second Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss Trump’s vice presidential selection process said it would be a mistake to choose another white man to lead the ticket.
“Even Trump is smart enough to say that two white men on the Republican ticket in 2024 is a bad idea when you have really good alternatives,” said the senator, who declared: “Tim Scott is No. 1.”
Cassidy, who remains hopeful that Trump might pick Nikki Haley, his former primary rival, as his vice presidential candidate, agreed that expanding the ticket’s appeal to skeptical Trump voters would be a smart move.
“I think Nikki Haley would be a great selection. That immediately comes to mind,” he said.
He said “intuitively you know that’s the case” that diversifying the Republican ticket could help attract minority or female voters.
“If you look at the polls, you see that female voters are moving away, so that makes sense to me,” he said.
Cassidy, who was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial, has only said he plans to vote for a Republican in the presidential race.
