Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) is unrecognizable from the woman who came to the U.S. Congress more than a decade ago.
And as her political career begins its downward trajectory into oblivion, the governor regularly debasing herself for the benefit of former President Donald Trump, Noem has become a walking cautionary tale, a real-life warning about the corrupting influence of power.
When Noem came to the House of Representatives in 2010, a beneficiary of the “red wave,” she was restrained and composed. She behaved as one would hope for someone entrusted with the tremendous duty of serving in the most powerful legislative body in the world. Noem gave the impression that she was at least tangentially serious about responsible and practical governance. She was low drama and not in any way prone to self-inflicted scandals, incendiary rhetoric, or any of the overtly cynical fundraising gimmicks that are so popular today among members of Congress. For her diligence and maturity, she was awarded increasingly influential committee assignments. She was a reliable and loyal Republican but didn’t always vote the party line. Noem seemed to have a mind of her own. She appeared the rare grown-up in a body of immature lowlifes.
Even if it wasn’t authentically her, that dignified iteration of Noem is long gone.
Now, where once there was an ostensibly serious legislator, there is a MAGA-rebranded performer, a profoundly unserious person whose only apparent aspiration in public life is to become Trump’s 2024 running mate by any means necessary. Noem determined somewhere that the key to upward mobility lies in Trumpworld, so she has embraced the former president and his movement in a bear hug, remodeling herself in his image. She’s now a bomb thrower. She is addicted to cable news appearances. She attacks fellow Republicans, including even the wingers, for being insufficiently devoted to Trump. And nowhere is Noem’s headlong descent into this especially sleazy and shameless carnival barking style of self-promotional politics more apparent than in the recently aborted press tour for her new memoir, No Going Back.
Amazingly, the book itself was hardly the worst of the tour, even with its anecdote about the time she executed a puppy or its certainly fraudulent claim that she once met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. No, the worst was Noem, who has apparently forgotten how to take responsibility and tell the truth — virtues she brags about extensively in her memoir.
The low point of the book tour came last week when CBS News’s Margaret Brennan asked perfectly reasonable questions about Noem’s dubious tales from North Korea. The governor likely never met Kim and has since had that “anecdote” excised from her book. But rather than act like an adult and admit error, Noem wouldn’t even say whether she had met Kim, responding instead to Brennan’s queries with petulance, resentment, evasions, and plain old-fashioned whataboutism.
“Did you meet Kim Jong Un?” Brennan asked bluntly.
“Well, you know,” Noem responded, “as soon as this was brought to my attention, I certainly made some changes and looked at this passage, and I’ve met with many, many world leaders. I’ve traveled around the world.”
“So you did not meet with Kim Jong Un?” Brennan asked.
Noem answered, “No, I’ve met with many, many world leaders, many world leaders. I’ve traveled around the world. I think I’ve talked extensively in this book about my time serving in Congress, my time as governor, before governor, some of the travels that I’ve had. I’m not going to talk about my specific meetings with world leaders. I’m just not going to do that.”
Brennan kept after it, noting that Noem narrated the audiobook.
“You didn’t catch these errors when you were recording it?” the news anchor asked.
“As it was brought to my attention, I took action to make sure that it was reflected,” said Noem, who then launched into a self-pitying rant alleging that no one ever asks President Joe Biden about his lies and falsehoods.
Brennan soldiered on, not letting herself get distracted by the governor’s whataboutism. She said, “You’re not taking responsibility for the mistakes in the book?”
“I am saying that this book is very, very good,” Noem said before returning to her canned response. “And I’ve met with many world leaders, and that either world leaders that I’ve met with that are in this book, there are many that I met with that are not in this book.”
The governor’s appearance was every bit as pathetic as it reads. It was also a clarifying moment. Noem has devolved. There’s no question about it. Take it from someone who has followed her public career since she was first elected to the House. That bright-eyed freshman congresswoman is long gone. In her place stands a caricature of modern politics as warped and absurd as any. Gone is the woman who came to Congress with a reputation such that she was selected immediately to help incoming House Speaker John Boehner orient her fellow freshmen lawmakers. In her place is a governor with a questionable record of nepotism and a penchant for starring in ethically dubious infomercials. In place of that freshman congresswoman is a governor who does not seem even the slightest bit interested in governing.
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Witnessing in real-time the disgraceful career implosion of a once-seemingly dignified legislator has been like watching a cautionary tale come to life. This is what happens if you stay in power for too long, children. You become a joke. It’s sad. Noem should have gotten out while there were still parts of herself worth salvaging.
Between the quiet backbencher from 2010 and whatever we’re all gawking at today, the Noem of the Tea Party is unrecognizable from the Noem of today — both literally and figuratively.
Becket Adams is a columnist for the Washington Examiner, National Review, and the Hill. He is also the program director of the National Journalism Center.
