NBC’s Peter Alexander grilled South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Sunday about her evidence-free claim of having met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, an anecdote included in her book earlier this year.
“So how did it make it into your book, governor?” asked Alexander, who filled in for Kristen Welker on Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press.”
“I’m not gonna talk about that,” replied Noem, whose “No Going Back” book also includes a controversial story about shooting and killing her dog.
“You’re not gonna talk about —,” Alexander said.
“I took that, I took that, I took that line out of my book and I’m not gonna talk about it,” she said.
“I guess my question is you wrote the book, though, so why was that line ever in there,” Alexander asked.
Noem — in the first release of “No Going Back” — wrote about meeting the North Korean leader while she was a member of the House Armed Services Committee, claiming she’s sure that Kim “underestimated” her at the time.
Congressional staffers would later tell The Dakota Scout that they weren’t aware of such an event.
Ian Fury, a spokesperson for Noem, told HuffPost that “two small errors” would be corrected in future editions ahead of the book’s release last month and Kim “shouldn’t have been” included in a list of world leaders.
Noem has previously refused to answer whether she met Kim when pressed about the anecdote and kept her answers to Alexander short on Sunday.
“Just to put it to bed once and for all, did you or did you not meet with Kim Jong Un,” Alexander asked.
“I am not going to talk about this,” she said.
“Why is that such a difficult one to say publicly?” Alexander asked.
“Because I’ve taken that line out of the book and I’m not going to discuss it,” she replied.