The Steamboat Institute’s Philip Wegmann got Governor Kristi Noem to say two self-contradictory things during her appearance at his organization’s conservative Freedom Conference and Festival. First, Noem dismissed the whole crop of Republican Presidential candidates not named Trump for yelling, bickering, and disrespecting debate decorum:
“The first 15 minutes of that debate were extremely discouraging for me,” the South Dakota governor told RealClearPolitics, adding, “I do not conduct my job interviews for staff that way.”
It was a notable choice of words given that Donald Trump dismissed the debate as little more than an audition for his potential running mate and because Noem has expressed interest in joining the ticket of the former president as he seeks the GOP nomination a third time.
“We are electing the leader of the free world,” Noem told RCP during an on-stage interview at a policy summit hosted by the conservative Steamboat Institute. “When I watched what happened on that stage, the yelling and the lack of respect for the moderators, for me it was very disheartening.”
The immediate bickering, she said, “made it hard to watch the rest” [Philip Wegmann, “Amidst VP Talk, Noem Insists Debate Wasn’t Job Interview,” Real Clear Politics, 2023.08.27].
Gee, Kristi sounds like she’s describing the exact behavior of Donald Trump in every debate, political speech, and press conference he’s ever appeared in. Yet she backed him through two elections and hasn’t stepped out to say he’s disqualified himself from this third. Is she saving up her disavowal for when Trump comes and yells and shows disrespect during his Rapid City speech next Friday?
Second, Noem projected the Republican tactic of distracting the electorate from Republicans’ chronic failure to perform with the culture war issues onto Democrats:
Some on the right fear that an overemphasis on cultural issues might alienate moderates and end up costing Republicans. “Social issues are incredibly important. We must fight and win the culture war,” said Kari Lakeearlier this year. Lake, the failed Arizona Senate candidate who is also reportedly on Trump’s short list of VP picks, added, “But the 2024 election will be all about fixing our economy and preventing World War 3.”
Noem rejected that dichotomy. She said national security ought to be “the biggest consideration” as voters make their decision because “we’re in such a dangerous unprecedented time,” and economics will be front and center because “families are being devastated” by the policies of the current White House. “But the social issues just are going to be a factor whether Kari Lake says they are or aren’t, whether anybody else in this country says they are or aren’t,” Noem said before adding that Democrats will force that kind of debate and use it “as a weapon to destroy people.” Her prescription for her party as they head into a presidential election year: “Be prepared to talk about them all because they’re going to be used” [Wegmann, 2023.08.27].
We Democrats would be more than happy to talk about nothing but the economy and foreign policy, because we’d win on those issues. That’s why Noem and other Republicans force the culture war debate and use abortion and gay rights and prayer in school as weapons to destroy people to whose defense Democrats are obliged to rise.
Wegmann appears to push the Noem for VP narrative. Her statements on debate etiquette and the culture war certainly help push that narrative, as Noem makes clear again that, like Trump, she’ll say the most contradictory, counterfactual crap she can concoct just to keep the voters from seeing what’s really going on.
Herr Trump might win the stupid Iowa caucuses but he won’t be on the primary ballot in at least seven states and that number is expected to rise.
There is no one as disrespectful as Noem. Generally, she says her disrespectful things when the person she’s disrespecting is absent, so they can’t respond. Then she gloats like a cat eating poop. Somehow she thinks that cowardly way of being disrespectful is better than saying it out loud in front of the person, so the person can respond in real time.
Debates ain’t bean bag. You’re supposed to mix it up. She is pretty good at spit out insults and lies that others make up for her. She’s readily programmable, but when it comes to real debate Noem can’t keep up. She shrinks into a pool of mush. That’s why Trump ain’t choosing Noem for VP. She’s a lightweight.
Why won’t trump be on states ballots? Is this a statement of fact, or opinion? I am asking because I would really like to know. Thanks.
“ Lake, the failed Arizona Senate candidate …..”
Correction: Lake was/is the unsuccessful candidate for governor.
🐻
jkl–several states are proceeding, under a Constitutional provision, to enforce the disqualification for public office of persons who have participated in an insurrection against the United States. The Constitutional Amendment (14 I believe) was adopted after the Civil War to prevent a political comeback in the Southern States by Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee,(who had no intention of ever standing for election) and Confederate Politicians like Robert Toombs of running for the Governorship or US Senate from the defeated Confederate States.
Mr. Pay- yes! That is what I am talking about! Haha.
Larry, you still are an idiot with no facts or proven theories to back your stupid arguments
Might have something to do with the nuclear bombs exploded in your backyard
Hopefully you can get a settlement
Self-immolation would be too good for you, troll.
Flip phone, troll?
Mr. Kurtz- there’s nothing cooler than talkin mad ish on them.. hard! Especially when they’re so trifling, nobody can believe the truth. Their butts are hurt. That’s why they leave a trail of blood. Butt blood
I shall be amused when Trump blows off his opp to appear in front of a coupla hunnerd? SoDak knuckledraggers.
One of Elvis’ last gigs was in Rapid. Thoughts and prayers.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/04/britain-dirty-money-laundry-mps-amendment-economic-crime-corporate-transparency-bill?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1693821569
Mr. Pay types:
One could almost point that entire message, repeatedly, and many of the out-of-state name-callers who are putting bloggings on this place. Uh huh, you say…Ennit?
A good typing, Mr. Pay…it is known you are generally a polite and pleasant fellow until you get really raged.
Goatzilla, There is nothing I say on here that I would not say to Noem’s face if she made herself available, she won’t, and I could decipher which face I was talking to. She lies out of both sdes of her mouth with a forked tongue and just like pathological liar drumpf, she repeats her lies over and over. You only care that she meets yer lowest standard of good looks.
That disqualification argument boils down to Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which says that a public official is not eligible to assume public office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the United States, or had “given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” unless they are granted amnesty by a two-thirds vote of Congress.
Magats are whining drumpf hasn’t been convicted of insurrection. Aericle 3 does not mention conviction.