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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
White House says it’s disturbing that Kristi Noem thinks Biden’s | |
dog should be shot and killed | |
By Betsy Klein and Michael Williams, CNN | |
Updated: | |
4:21 PM EDT, Mon May 6, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
The White House on Monday had a terse message for South Dakota Gov. | |
Kristi Noem, who suggested one of President Joe Biden’s pets should | |
suffer the same fate as the dog she . | |
“We learned last week, obviously like all of you, in her book that | |
she killed her puppy. You heard me say that was very, very sad. We find | |
her comments from yesterday disturbing. We find them absurd,” White | |
House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday. | |
She continued, “This is a country that loves dogs. And you have a | |
leader talking about putting dogs down – killing them. And that’s a | |
disturbing statement to say.” | |
Noem, Jean-Pierre advised, “should probably should stop digging | |
herself in a hole.” | |
In a forthcoming memoir, Noem boasted about killing her dog, Cricket, | |
in a gravel pit after she said the dog was “untrainable.” Noem’s | |
admission has caused days’ worth of bipartisan uproar toward the | |
governor, who was once considered to be vying to be former President | |
Donald Trump’s running mate in the coming election. | |
In the book, and in media appearances since the Cricket controversy | |
began, | |
Commander was sent away from the White House last October after CNN | |
reported that the 2-year-old German shepherd was involved in a | |
significant number of biting incidents involving US Secret Service | |
personnel, executive residence staff and other White House workers. | |
“What would I do if I was president on the first day in office in | |
2025? Thanks for asking. I happen to have a list. The first thing I’d | |
do is make sure Joe Biden’s dog was nowhere on the grounds | |
(‘Commander, say hello to Cricket for me’),” Noem wrote, | |
according to an advance copy of the book obtained by CNN. | |
During an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday, Noem was | |
pressed on whether she believed Commander should be killed. | |
“How many people is enough people to be attacked and dangerously hurt | |
before you make a decision on a dog and what to do with it? That’s | |
the question that the president should be held accountable to,” Noem | |
said. | |
Asked by host Margaret Brennan on whether she was saying the dog should | |
be shot, Noem repeated,“That’s what the president should be | |
accountable to. What is the number?” | |
CNN learned through a Freedom of Information Act request in February | |
that Commander bit Secret Service personnel in at least 24 incidents at | |
the White House and other locations, according to internal USSS | |
documents. | |
Those documents revealed the extent to which the situation had become a | |
serious workplace issue for the hundreds of staff supporting White | |
House operations, and how agency personnel changed their habits to | |
avoid being injured by the German shepherd. | |
“The recent dog bites have challenged us to adjust our operational | |
tactics when Commander is present – please give lots of room,” an | |
unnamed assistant special agent in charge of USSS’ Presidential | |
Protective Division wrote to their team in a June 2023 email, warning | |
that agents “must be creative to ensure our own personal safety.” | |
That warning came months before with multiple biting incidents taking | |
place in the interim. | |
Commander, who was gifted to the president and first lady as a puppy in | |
2021, is currently living with Biden family members in Delaware. | |
“The president and first lady care deeply about the safety of those | |
who work at the White House and those who protect them every day. | |
Despite additional dog training, leashing, working with veterinarians, | |
and consulting with animal behaviorists, the White House environment | |
simply proved too much for Commander. Since the fall, he has lived with | |
other family members,” Elizabeth Alexander, first lady Jill Biden’s | |
communications director, said in a statement at the time. | |
The Bidens’ other dog, Major, and had previously been sent away to | |
Delaware. | |
A source close to the family said that the Bidens feels “awful” and | |
had been “heartbroken” about the spate of incidents, but President | |
Biden made light of the situation last month, joking at a New York | |
fundraiser, “As Harry Truman said, ‘You’re president. If you want | |
a friend in Washington, get a dog.’ I got one, and he bit a Secret | |
Service agent, so I don’t know.” | |
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