South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has endured brutal media coverage in recent weeks, but you wouldn’t have known it when she headlined a rally in front of a packed house Monday in The Villages.
Noem told the Villagers for Trump 47 club at Rohan Recreation Center that they must work together to elect Donald Trump this November. She told the more than 230 club members who filled every chair in the room that only Trump can handle the border crisis.
Noem was the first governor to send National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border to address the immigrant crisis. She said that law enforcement officers told her that drug cartels were forcing women and children into the river where they had to be rescued by Border Patrol agents and guard troops. The cartels were doing this as a diversion so that they could move truck loads of drugs across the border she claimed.
The governor told the audience that the drug cartels have moved their fentanyl operation into the Indian reservation in South Dakota. When she asked to assist the tribes which are considered to be independent sovereign nations under federal law they refused to allow state law enforcement officers and the governor onto the reservations. She claimed that the ten million persons who have tried to enter the country since Biden was elected are mostly criminals and that Trump would round them up and send them out of the country. The governor received a standing ovation at the conclusion of her remarks.
Villager Arlene Riggs expressed support for Noem’s plans to keep taxes low, end government intrusion into people’s lives and limiting government regulation. She joined the rest of the audience who cheered Noem when the governor said she kept South Dakota open for business during the Covid pandemic.
Noem said she was the first governor to endorse Trump when he first ran for president in 2016. Many pundits have indicated that she would be on Trump’s short list of possible running mates.
The publication of her recent book, “No Going Back” in which she described shooting her puppy, Cricket, may have ended her chance at being a vice president candidate. While Noem defended shooting Cricket she has been condemned for the killing all through the country by Republicans as well as Democrats. Fifteen animal rights activists heeded Villager Rochelle Larson’s call to protest Noem’s appearance. These Villagers held signs condemning Noem for killing Cricket.