Mitt Romney says he resents being compared to South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem after she bragged about killing a pet dog over its troublesome behavior.
The former Republican presidential standard-bearer insisted that he did nothing nearly so cruel as Noem by strapping a pet dog to the roof of his car, a much-mocked episode from his 2012 White House campaign.
“I didn’t shoot my dog,” Romney told HuffPost Tuesday. “I loved my dog, and my dog loved me.”
He called Noem’s story about shooting and killing the pooch “a tale of slaughter.”
Noem, a right-wing Republican hardliner who was once thought to be on former President Trump’s vice presidential shortlist, drew withering criticism from across the political spectrum with her bizarre account in a memoir that emerged last week.
Apparently hoping to burnish her tough lady image, Noem recounted a 20-year-old episode in which she said she killed the dog named Cricket because it didn’t hunt properly and displayed other problematic behavior.
“I hated that dog,” wrote Noem, adding it was “less than worthless.” She also killed a goat that she derided as smelly and obnoxious.
Romney’s own doggie debacle came in 1983 when as a young father he packed up the family Chevrolet station wagon for a summer trip from Boston to the Canadian Atlantic seaboard.
With no room inside for the pet pointer, Seamus, Romney attached a dog carrier to the roof rack and created a makeshift shield to protect him from the elements.
The story was recounted by Romney’s son during his GOP presidential primary campaign as a way of humanizing the candidate who battles perceptions that he is wealthy and aloof.
But it backfired as political rivals pounced on the damaging claim that Romney strapped the pooch to the car’s roof.
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