South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem posted a video to Twitter on Wednesday of her shooting a game bird, triggering outrage from many on the left.
The video: Noem, a Republican, is seen in the clip standing in a field while wearing hunting gear and holding a semi-automatic shotgun.
- The 14-second video has been viewed nearly 3 million times.
“I’m Kristi Noem, governor of South Dakota,” she says. “This is how we do social distancing in our state.”
- Noem then turns and shoots at a pheasant as it flies past, hitting the bird with her third shot.
- “Less COVID, more hunting. That’s the plan for the future,” she quips.
Noem — an enthusiastic booster of South Dakota pheasant hunting and President Donald Trump — has recently emerged as something of a conservative political celebrity thanks in part to her refusal to implement a coronavirus lockdown.
- Saluting American individualism, Noem has vowed South Dakota will always remain “open for opportunity” — crediting her freedom-loving approach with keeping local businesses afloat and residents employed.
- Liberal critics, meanwhile, have cast Noem as a coronavirus denier, particularly after she allowed the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally to go ahead in early August.
The reaction: Twitter commentary about Noem’s Twitter video predictably broke down along partisan lines.
Speaking for many on the right, “The View” co-host Meghan McCain exclaimed, “I love this!!”
But Daily Beast politics reporter Hanna Trudo joined a chorus on the left in decrying Noem’s act of violence.
- “She shot an innocent bird. For fun,” Trudo said in a since-deleted tweet.
Walter Schaub, a liberal government ethics attorney, faulted Noem both for killing “animals for entertainment” and for her coronavirus response.
Other Twitter scolds pointed out that pheasant season in South Dakota doesn’t officially start until Oct. 17.
In response to a tweet from PETA asking, “Are you bonkers or just cruel?,” Noem said: “Many on the Left simply don’t understand our South Dakota way of life.”
- The governor explained: “We hunt. We fish. We pray. And we love America.”
