Busted: Kristi Noem lauded Tim Walz's 'commonsense' ideas before proclaiming him 'radical'
Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) is one of former President Donald Trump's committed surrogates, and she has leveled a number of attacks at Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“Walz is no leader. He’s a radical. I served with him in Congress. He pretended to be moderate, then showed his true extremist colors as soon as he became governor,” she said in one recent social media post.
And in a recent interview, she called him "a radical leftist governor who truly believes that socialism is the future for America."
But she was saying something very different at the time they actually worked together in Congress, representing neighboring states, reported CNN. In fact, the two of them routinely worked together on local issues and praised one another.
ALSO READ: Trump revives widely mocked digital trading cards as Harris gains in polls
According to Daniel Strauss and Allison Gordon, Walz and Noem even posed for a video in which they discussed a prairie lands protection bill they were working on together, where Walz said, “It’s a smart bill and I’m grateful to the Congresswoman both as we share similar geography out there, and while our producers are great stewards of the land, we share that land with our sportsmen and making sure that we have those resources available,” and Noem said, “I love working with Tim just because he’s got such a commonsense approach, which I like too.”
Noem, notably, was under consideration at one point to be Trump's running mate. He ultimately went with Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who has stirred up controversy by going after Walz's military service.
Additionally, Noem has come under fire of her own after she boasted in her book about shooting a puppy that she was unable to properly train for hunting, a story that drew outrage from dog owners around the country, including those in rural areas who disputed her claim that this was a normal way to handle a dog unfit for work.
Walz, who ironically has been facing a conspiracy theory about his own dog, was one of many who criticized Noem at the time, writing on his X account, “Post a picture with your dog that doesn’t involve shooting them and throwing them in a gravel pit. I’ll start.”