South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) indicated Sunday that she has not been formally vetted to potentially be former President Trump’s vice presidential pick.
When asked on “Meet the Press” whether she has received any verification documentation, Noem said, “The only person who knows who the vice president will be is Donald Trump.”
“I have not received any paperwork,” she said, adding, “I have had conversations with the president and I know that he is the one who will make the decisions about who will be his vice president.”
Trump said over the weekend that he has already decided who his running mate will be, but declined to reveal a name.
The vice presidential selection process appears to have ramped up in recent weeks, with several prominent Republicans receiving vetting materials. A source familiar with the matter told The Hill earlier this month that North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Senators Marco Rubio (Florida), Tim Scott (SC) and JD Vance (Ohio) have received requests for verification.
Noem, a strong Trump ally, was previously considered a potential pick for vice president, although a series of controversies appear to have hurt those prospects.
The South Dakota governor came under sustained attack earlier this year after an excerpt from her new memoir, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” revealed how she he shot Cricket, his family’s almost 14-year-old son. month-old hunting dog.
The governor said she shot the German wirehaired pointer on her property after pheasant hunting. She “hated” the dog, Noem wrote, and claimed it was responsible for attacking a neighbor’s chickens and trying to bite her.
When asked if she believes the anecdote cost her a chance to be running mate, Noem said, “I would say that was a story from 20 years ago about me protecting my children from a cruel animal.”
“So we’ve got that covered – and any mother in those situations, when you have an animal that violently kills livestock and attacks people, it’s a difficult decision,” she continued. “The reason it’s in my book is because it’s filled with challenging times and difficult decisions. And it’s a story, but I think a lot of Americans will be able to read it and learn how they can re-engage with their government.”
NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander asked Noem a second time if the story impacted her vice presidential chances, to which she asked him if he had read the story.
“And if you read the book, a lot of what was reported was not true, it was not the truth of the story,” she said. “So I would encourage people to read the book and really find out the truth about why this story is there and read the other parts of the story about how we’re not going to go back to politics the way it used to be. , how Donald Trump has changed politics because we are having much more honest and genuine conversations about the challenges people face.”
Noem also faced criticism from Native American tribes in her state after commenting earlier this year that tribal leaders benefited from drug cartels. It has since been banned from all tribal lands in South Dakota.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
