Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show on Monday night, and it did not go well for her.
The moment: Carlson grilled Noem, a rising Republican star, on why she declined on Friday to sign a bill passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature banning transgender women and girls from participating in female sports at all levels.
- Noting Noem recently said she was “excited to sign the bill,” Carlson wondered if the governor changed her mind because “business business intercedes, NCAA, Chamber of Commerce and Amazon tell you not to sign it.”
“Well, that’s not true, Tucker,” Noem responded. “I could sign the bill the way that it is today … but it wouldn’t solve the problem.”
- Noem said she asked the South Dakota legislature to change the bill so it applies only to middle school and high school athletics, and not college sports, in an effort to prevent the NCAA from boycotting or suing South Dakota.
- Echoing her explanation at a news conference earlier in the day, Noem said “legal scholars” have told her she would “very likely lose those litigation efforts,”
“Wait,” Carlson interrupted. “So you are saying the NCAA threatened you … they said ‘If you sign this, we won’t allow girls in South Dakota to play’ and you don’t think you can win in court — even though the public overwhelmingly supports you nationally — and so you are caving to the NCAA?”
Noem rejected Carlson’s suggestion about her motives as “completely wrong” and said she plans to “build a coalition of leaders, athletes and people who want to protect women’s sports.”
- “I’m not going to let anybody from the NCAA, from any big business, I’m not even going to let conservatives on the right bully me,” she said. “I’m going to solve the problem.”
The reaction: Noem quickly tweeted out a clip of the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” interview in which she claimed to be adopting the host’s preferred “bring it on” approach to fighting the NCAA.
The clear consensus on conservative Twitter, however, was that Noem had been exposed as unwilling to stand up against big business in defense of traditional social values.
“Kristi Noem was threatened with economic casualties and chose to surrender” in the “ideological war for the future of America,” said Jesse Kelly, a talk show host.
“Kristi Noem says she doesn’t want to ban males from women’s sports at the college level because it might make the NCAA mad and they might ‘punish us,'” said Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire. “That is the most Republican line of reasoning I’ve ever heard. Sick of it. Nauseated by it.”
Former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka hours earlier declared Noem a “Republican in name only.”
- He also shared a Federalist essay headlined, “Bowing To Corporate Demands For Watered-Down Bill, Gov. Kristi Noem Sells Out Women’s Sports.”
Many conservative commentators declared that Carlson had effectively killed talk that Noem could appear on the 2024 Republican presidential ticket.
“Well, it looks like Ron DeSantis is going to have to look for a different running mate,” said Mark Krikorian, a hawkish immigration expert, referring the popular Republican governor of Florida.
“Kristi Noem is finished in my book,” said Isabella Riley of Turning Point USA.
“More like Kristi Nope,” said Jack Posobiec, a right-wing activist.
Meanwhile, Noem has received little credit from the left for opposing her state’s transgender sports ban.
- The American Civil Liberties Union faulted her in a tweet on Friday for having “failed to fully veto an anti-trans bill.”
With the Biden administration and congressional Democrats pushing transgender rights in sports and beyond, 20 other states are considering bills similar to the one Noem nixed.
