--- title: Dog Shooter Kristi Noem Sets Her Sights on Biden’s Commander description: The South Dakota Governor and Trump VP hopeful suggested that Biden’s bite-prone dog should join the dog she admitted to shooting. canonical: https://time.com/6974956/kristi-noem-joe-biden-dog-shot/ author: Chad de Guzman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-05-06T03:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-19T12:44:44.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Dog Shooter Kristi Noem Sets Her Sights on Biden’s Commander og:description: The South Dakota Governor and Trump VP hopeful suggested that Biden’s bite-prone dog should join the dog she admitted to shooting. og:url: https://time.com/6974956/kristi-noem-joe-biden-dog-shot/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbe4672ef4016981/698a566a86f68e7e966f5157/commander.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-BIDEN-DOG og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dog Shooter Kristi Noem Sets Her Sights on Biden’s Commander twitter:description: The South Dakota Governor and Trump VP hopeful suggested that Biden’s bite-prone dog should join the dog she admitted to shooting. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbe4672ef4016981/698a566a86f68e7e966f5157/commander.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump VP Hopeful Kristi Noem Suggests Biden’s Dog Should Be Shot Like Hers > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Chad de Guzman](https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Reporter Updated: Jan 19, 2026 12:44 PM UTCPublished: May 6, 2024 3:00 AM UTC  President Biden’s dog Commander walks on the south grounds of the White House on Aug. 9, 2022. President Biden’s dog Commander walks on the south grounds of the White House on Aug. 9, 2022.Mandel Ngan—AFP /Getty Images  by [Chad de Guzman](https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Reporter Updated: Jan 19, 2026 12:44 PM UTCPublished: May 6, 2024 3:00 AM UTC South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who has come under fire in recent days for her [admission to killing](https://time.com/6971773/kristi-noem-memoir-dog-kill-children-net-worth/) her misbehaving 14-month-old dog Cricket, has suggested that President Joe Biden’s dog Commander should meet the same fate. In an [interview](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kristi-noem-south-dakota-governor-face-the-nation-transcript-05-05-2024/) on Sunday on _Face the Nation_, Noem, who is [reportedly](https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-vice-president-nominee-candidates-2024-1) a contender to be former President Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024, was asked about a passage in her forthcoming memoir in which she wrote that one of her first priorities if she were at the White House would be to make sure that Commander, Biden’s [bite-prone](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/22/biden-dog-commander-bite-24-agents/) German shepherd, was nowhere on the grounds—and that Commander should “say hello to Cricket.” “Are you doing this to try to look tough?” moderator Margaret Brennan asked Noem. “Joe Biden’s dog has attacked 24 Secret Service people,” Noem explained. “So how many people is enough people to be attacked and dangerously hurt before you make a decision on a dog?” Brennan interjected, noting that Commander [no longer lives at the White House](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60EqlpJG3j0), and sought clarification: “You’re saying he should be shot?” But Noem continued without answering, “That’s what the president should be held accountable to…” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing on Monday that Noem’s insinuation was “disturbing” and “absurd.” “We learned last week, obviously like all of you, in her book that she killed her puppy. You heard me say, that was very, very sad,” Jean-Pierre said. “This is a country that loves dogs, and you have a leader talking about putting dogs down—killing them.” She added that Noem “probably should stop digging herself in a hole.” Noem was also asked on Sunday about other controversial passages, including a line about meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that she has [admitted was false](https://time.com/6974797/kristi-noem-kim-jong-un-book-controversy/), from _No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward_, which is set to be published on May 7. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6974956/kristi-noem-joe-biden-dog-shot/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6974956/kristi-noem-joe-biden-dog-shot/"},"headline":"Trump VP Hopeful Kristi Noem Suggests Biden’s Dog Should Be Shot Like Hers","datePublished":"2024-05-06T03:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-01-19T12:44:44.000Z","description":"The South Dakota Governor and Trump VP hopeful suggested that Biden’s bite-prone dog should join the dog she admitted to shooting.","url":"https://time.com/6974956/kristi-noem-joe-biden-dog-shot/","keywords":["republicans","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbe4672ef4016981/698a566a86f68e7e966f5157/commander.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chad de Guzman","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbe4672ef4016981/698a566a86f68e7e966f5157/commander.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-BIDEN-DOG","caption":"U.S. President Joe Biden's dog 'Commander' walks on the south grounds of the White House in Washington, DC on Aug. 9, 2022.","creditText":"Mandel Ngan—AFP /Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/republicans/","name":"republicans"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6974956/kristi-noem-joe-biden-dog-shot/","name":"Trump VP Hopeful Kristi Noem Suggests Biden’s Dog Should Be Shot Like Hers"}}]}] ```