Kristi Noem joined “Meet the Press” Sunday and admitted she doesn’t appear to be on the list of potential vice-presidential nominees being vetted by Donald Trump. “No, I haven’t received any paperwork,” South Dakota’s governor told guest anchor Peter Alexander. “No, I haven’t. I’ve had conversations with the president, and I know that he is the only one who will be making the decisions on who will be his vice president.”
Alexander reminded Noem that Trump once said he liked “the concept” of running with a woman on his presidential ticket, but that his current three choices — reportedly North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Sen. J.D. Vance and Sen. Marco Rubio — are all men. In his previous longer list of potential candidates who were sent vetting paperwork, Rep. Elise Stefanik was the only woman on the list.
“Would Donald Trump be making a mistake if he does not pick a woman as his running mate?” Alexander asked.
“You know, I think he needs to pick the best person for the job,” Noem said. “He needs to pick someone that will help him win.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Noem flat-out refused to talk about her purported meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. After she included a reference to the meeting in her book — but offered no evidence to support it — Noem later pulled the sentence from future editions. As a result, she told Alexander, the topic is off limits.
The host pressed further and pointed out, “You wrote the book, though. So why was that line ever in your book if it didn’t happen?”
“I wrote the book, and I hope people will read it,” Noem said, pivoting away from the question. “It’s a good book about how the American citizen can get involved in their government again, and what they can do, and how the most powerful person in the government is them.”
Noem came under fire ahead of the release of her book “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward” in late April, in large part due to her admission that she once shot and killed a puppy. In the book, she described the dog as “extremely dangerous” and said, “It had come to us from a family who had found her way too aggressive.”
“I hated that dog,” she wrote, adding that Cricket the dog was “less than worthless … as a hunting dog.”
Noem’s book also included a passage in which she wrote, “I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un. I’m sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants. I’ve been a children’s pastor, after all.”
However, South Dakota’s governor told “Face the Nation” anchor Margaret Brennan at the time that she had the section of the book omitted “as soon as this was brought to my attention” — but which was after she narrated the audiobook herself.
Watch the full “Meet the Press” interview with Kristi Noem in the video above.
