Kristi Noem says 'any mom' would have killed her 'vicious' puppy named Cricket

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) defended killing her puppy, Cricket, because he was "vicious."

During a Sunday interview on Meet the Press, host Peter Alexander asked Noem if the story about her shooting a dog hurt her chances of being Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate.

"You know, I would say that that was a story from 20 years ago about me protecting my children from a vicious animal," Noem replied. "And any mom in those situations, when you have an animal that's viciously killing livestock and attacking people, it's a tough decision."

"And if you read the book, a lot of what got reported was not the truth, was not the truth on the story," she continued.

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Alexander also pressed Noem on the claim that she met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

"There was no evidence that that meeting happened," Alexander noted. "So how did it make it into your book, Governor?"

"I'm not going to talk about that," Noem insisted. "I took that line out of my book, and I'm not going to talk about it."

Watch the video below from NBC or at the link.