Politics - News Analysis

Kristi Noem is Having a Really, REALLY Bad Week and It’s Only Getting Worse

South Dakota governor and, purportedly a rising MAGA star, Kristi Noem has been in the news a lot lately and none of it is positive from her point of view, or ours. One thing that’s not a rumor, just more sheer MAGA idiocy, Kristi Noem has no power over Mount Rushmore. For some reason, this fact continues to elude MAGA minds.

But as to the controversies in the news?

First, we gave (give) her the benefit of the doubt with respect to rumors of an affair with Corey Lewandowski because it is just a rumor, and rumors are often used to tear women down. Additionally, Corey Lewandowski is just the type of guy that would lie about sleeping with a gorgeous woman. Plus, Noem is married and attractive, we don’t see her as wanting to be involved with Lewandowski. We aren’t saying it’s impossible. We are just giving her a total pass on that “scandal.”

But the other one? Apparently getting a real estate license in South Dakota used to be too hard. It was so hard that, while some got licenses, Noem’s daughter did not. So Noem called the head of the board in for a meeting and, e’ viola! Noem made the process easier and smoother for everyone, or at least that’s Noem’s story after her daughter got her license. According to Rawstory: (And Tweet below)

However, she insisted that she didn’t give her daughter any specific favors and said that the changes she pushed were for the benefit of everyone.

The Associated Press reported last month the Noem’s daughter in 2020 was denied a real estate appraiser license. Shortly after this denial, Noem summoned Sherry Bren, then the director of the Appraiser Certification Program, into her office along with her daughter, who was granted a license shortly afterward.

Addressing the controversy, Noem criticized “speculation and innuendo in the media” and said that the process for applying for an appraiser license was “way too difficult” for most people to achieve.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. The standard for a conflict of interest is to avoid even the “appearance” of a conflict. IF the process was “too hard” (and sometimes these things can be because it helps entrenched, long-term interests), then what a governor does is appoint a neutral person to look into the matter and prepare a report and recommendation that truly does apply to everyone at the same time.

Otherwise, it looks and smells like a real scandal and a real problem. We give her a pass on Lewandowski, but on this one, she looks guilty as all hell. ‘Good thing she cannot plant a tree at Mount Rushmore.

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meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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