Kristi Noem's Account Of Meeting World Leader In New Book Is 'Bulls**t': Report
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Kristi Noem’s claim in her new book that she met North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is highly suspect, The Dakota Scout media outlet reported Thursday, citing its own investigation and several sources.
“It’s bullshit,” a high-level Capitol Hill staffer who worked with Noem when she was a congresswoman told the independent outlet.
Noem, the Republican South Dakota governor who’s been talked up as a possible running mate for former President Donald Trump, already courted controversy with an account in the book of killing her young dog Cricket because the pup behaved poorly and couldn’t hunt.
Noem’s camp pushed back against the assertion that she lied about chatting with the North Korean leader when she served in the House of Representatives.
“It was brought to our attention that the upcoming book ‘No Going Back’ has two small errors,” spokesperson Ian Fury said in a statement to HuffPost on Friday. “This has been communicated to the ghostwriter and editor. Kim Jong Un was included in a list of world leaders and shouldn’t have been. ... The book has not been released yet, and all future editions will be corrected.”
“The media will, of course, try and make these tiny issues huge,” he added.
Noem also recalled in the book that she canceled a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron last year, which Macron’s office denied, the Scout reported.
But her self-aggrandizing passage about the Kim meeting is particularly noteworthy.
In “No Going Back,” due out May 7, Noem wrote: “Through my tenure on the House Armed Services Committee, I had the chance to travel to many countries to meet with world leaders. 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’d been a children’s pastor, after all). Dealing with foreign leaders takes resolve, preparation and determination. My experiences on those many foreign trips made me a better member of Congress and a stronger governor. It allowed me to hone my deal-making skills, which play a crucial role in leadership.”
The Scout said its examination of congressional travel records raised serious doubts about her claim, as did its sources.
“I don’t see any conceivable way that a single junior member of Congress without explicit escort from the U.S. State Department and military would be meeting with a leader from North Korea,” Notre Dame political science professor George Lopez, an authority on the hermit kingdom, told the outlet.
“There’s no way,” added Benjamin Young, the author of a book on North Korea.
HuffPost has reached out to the publisher, Hachette’s Center Street, for comment.
