South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem made her pitch in support of President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday night in Sioux City. Noem praised Trump while taking some time to criticize his top rivals.
“It matters who is in charge,” Noem said. “I’m here because I’ve worn a lot of hats in my life. I’m a wife, I’m a mom and now I’m a grandma. I think that there’s something that genetically happens when you become a grandma.”
Noem said America is being destroyed, and stopping it begins in Iowa. As she visited with Iowans throughout the day, Noem said three things routinely come up — the price of groceries, the price of gas and the border.
She’s campaigning for Trump because she could be on offense every day Trump was in office. And now, with President Joe Biden, Noem spends her time on defense.
During COVID, people lost their rights, she said. But not in South Dakota.
“It has been an all-out war on your constitutional freedoms, and the only person who ever stood up and helped me fight for my people in South Dakota’s constitutional freedoms was Donald J. Trump,” Noem said.
Politicians, whether they admit it or not, believe they are better than the citizens. But not President Trump. Noem said when Trump announced in 2016 he came down a golden escalator.
“Who does that,” she asked.
In South Dakota, Noem said there are escalators in two different spots — the airport and the civic center.
Most politicians who announce they are running for office go out and buy a pair of overalls and stand in a barn or a machine shop or a manufacturing plant.
“They try to pretend that they’re just like everybody else out there,” Noem said. “They’re just like you and they want to ask for your vote and they want to run for office. But secretly, they all think they’re a little bit better than you. They think they’re a little bit smarter than you. They think they’re a little bit more qualified. And that they’d be the best person for that job. They’re going to look like you, but in their head and how they act and how they vote, they think they’re a little bit better than you. I’ll tell you what, President Trump doesn’t think he’s better than anybody. He knows who he is. He’s confident in who he is. He came down a golden escalator because that’s who he is. He never pretended to be anybody else other than who he is and he doesn’t think he’s better than any of you.”
Noem said she worked with Trump on several issues and he helped her build the economy in South Dakota.
“President Trump led us through a time of crisis,” she said. “He has had his family attacked. He has had his businesses attacked. And he’s never once taken a day off. Ever.”
Noem said she has heard Iowans are not willing to be public about their support for Trump and they fear retaliation if they support him publicly at the caucus.
“In all the years you’ve known President Trump, has he ever once taken a day off,” she asked. “He has put his family on the front line for years. I want you to tell everybody who doesn’t want to take two hours to go and caucus for President Trump, ask them to just go and not take those two hours off but go put two hours in for the guy who got up every day and defended your freedoms over the last many years that they’ve been so under threat by the liberal Left.”
She then turned her remarks toward Trump’s top opponents in the GOP — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.
“I’m going to be honest with you, people have asked me all day, ‘How come you’re not supporting Ron DeSantis?’ Listen, I served in Congress with Ron DeSantis. We both got elected governor at the same time. When COVID came and pressure came to close down our states, I was the only governor that never once closed a single business. Never once closed a church.”
Noem said she never limited the number of people who could attend meetings and instead trusted the people.
“Now we’re not going to let people who run for office rewrite history,” Noem said. “Ron DeSantis closed his businesses down. He closed his beaches down. When it was hard, challenging, political pressure, in times when everything mattered and your constitutional freedoms were threatened, Ron DeSantis caved to the pressure. And we just can’t afford to put somebody as leader of the free world who caves into political pressure.”
Those in attendance laughed when Noem said people ask her why she isn’t campaigning for Haley. But Noem was direct in her criticism.
“I don’t know who the real Nikki Haley is,” she said. “I’ve heard so many different versions of Nikki Haley and met so many different versions of Nikki Haley — I don’t know who she is.”
Haley said she wouldn’t support raising the gas tax, but then introduced and passed one of the largest gas tax increases in history. Haley also said China is America’s friend and we should invite them to invest in America.
“Now she’s decided that they’re an enemy,” Noem said. “She said that she was never going to run for President against President Trump and now she’s running for President against President Trump. She defends him and she attacks him. She defends him and she attacks him. Which ever way the political winds blow is where she goes. And we cannot trust our country to somebody like that either.”
Noem said the only person she trusts to tell her the truth and follow through on what he says he will do is Trump.
“The best gift that he gave me the last several years and when he was in the White House was that he let me do my job,” she said.
If Trump were still in the White House, Noem predicted the world would not be in chaos.
The time has come for Iowans to be unafraid and willing to be uncomfortable. Noem encouraged the crowd to be willing to say yes and speak for Trump at the caucus.
“I need you to be people who say yes,” she said. “We need to be a country that says yes. Who boldly stands up and defends our liberties and our freedom. We don’t cower to anyone.
“You are literally determining the future of the United States of America. The issues that we’re fighting, the lawlessness, the destruction, the tearing apart of our country, it’s happening so quickly and it’s because people did not stand up and weren’t bold. I need you to decide tonight to be bold. We’re going to show up and be yes people for President Trump. We’re going to put him back in the White House. And we’re going to defend our freedoms and we’re going to make sure that President Donald J. Trump is the 47th President of the United States of America.”
