‘Commander, say hello to Cricket’: Noem book contains threat against Biden dog

Tuesday will see publication of No Going Back, a campaign book by the South Dakota governor Kristi Noem that generated unusual buzz after the Guardian revealed how Noem describes in detail the day she shot dead her dog, Cricket, which she deemed untrainable and dangerous, and an unnamed goat.

The revelation sparked a political firestorm, widely held to have incinerated Noem’s chances of being named running mate to Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

But as the book neared publication, it became clear Noem was not done when she closed her chapter on killing Cricket, a 14-month-old female wirehaired pointer, and the unnamed male goat, which Noem says was smelly and aggressive and dangerous to her children.

At the end of No Going Back, Noem asks: “What would I do if I was president on the first day in office in 2025?”

Remarkably, she writes that “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 adds that her own dog, Foster, “would sure be welcome” at the White House.

“He comes with me to the [state] capitol all the time and loves everyone,” she writes.

Nonetheless, a governor widely held to have designs on the presidency in 2028 has at least implied she would have a predecessor’s dog killed – whether by herself with a shotgun, like Cricket and the goat, or not.

Noem has defended her description of killing Cricket and the goat as evidence of her willingness to do unpleasant things in farm life as well as in politics.

Commander, a german shepherd owned by Joe and Jill Biden, was removed from the White House after biting Secret Service agents.

On Sunday, Noem spoke to CBS’s Face the Nation. Her host, Margaret Brennan, quoted