The Campaign Update: Margaret Brennan Puts the Coda on Kristi Noem's Career

I hate to pick on a lady, especially one who I have to admit I thought had potential to be a real conservative star, but let’s start by picking on hapless Kristi Noem, who made another career-killing move by appearing on Face The Nation Sunday morning, for an interview with host Margaret Brennan.

Brennan, of course, brought up the “shooting the mean puppy in the face” story Noem relates in her new book, possibly the dumbest decision in US political history. Given that no good answer is possible to defend that story, Noem only made it worse by attempting to portray the dog now as some sort of deadly menace to her own kids, an allegation not made in the book.

That’s bad enough, but Noem amazingly made things even worse when Brennan raised the claim in the book that Noem had met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, an event that never happened. Why Noem would make that outlandish claim and somehow think no one would bother to refute it is unfathomable, but make it she did in this passage from the book:

“I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. I’m sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants. I have been a children’s pastor after all.”