Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem fired back Tuesday at MSNBC host Joy Reid after she disparaged Mount Rushmore on Presidents Day as a “stone idol to presidential colonizers.”
“Last night @JoyAnnReid called Mount Rushmore the ‘stone idol to presidential colonizers.’ On Presidents’ Day of all days!” Noem tweeted from her gubernatorial account. “The left wants to re-write our history by attacking the leaders who made America the most special country ever. It’s our duty to teach our kids the truth.”
Last night @JoyAnnReid called Mount Rushmore the “stone idol to presidential colonizers.” On Presidents’ Day of all days!
The left wants to re-write our history by attacking the leaders who made America the most special country ever. It’s our duty to teach our kids the truth.
— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) February 16, 2021
Noem, a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate, has proposed nearly $1 million to overhaul the state’s school history curriculum to make it pro-America.
Reid made her comment Monday during a monologue in which she lambasted Noem for not enforcing COVID-19 restrictions last summer when former President Donald Trump held a rally at Mount Rushmore in Keystone, South Dakota. She also took umbrage to the fact that Noem gave Trump a $1,100 bust depicting him on Mount Rushmore as a gift.
“According to financial disclosures last month, Noem gave you-know-who a thousand-dollar bust depicting him on the stone idol to presidential colonizers last year because she knew it was something that he wanted to receive,” Reid snarked. She went on to attack Noem for allegedly using taxpayer funds to travel to GOP campaign events, which Reid described as “acts of supplication to the MAGA cult leader and his minions.” Noem’s office, Reid noted, has denied the allegations.
Reid, who goes by the name “Joy-Ann Pro-Democracy & Masks Reid” on Twitter, made several other caustic comments on Presidents Day.
“Happy Presidents Day to all of our living presidents who DIDN’T commit insurrection against the United States or try to get their vice presidents lynched!” she tweeted.
Happy Presidents Day to all of our living presidents who DIDN’T commit insurrection against the United States or try to get their vice presidents lynched!
— Joy-Ann Pro-Democracy & Masks Reid 😷 (@JoyAnnReid) February 15, 2021
She also claimed attempting to get along with Republicans is pointless because the party is “an anti-democracy insurgency.”
Democrats: please take the advice of a former Republican. He knows far better than you do what the other side is planning to do to you. Your usual game of “let’s make friends” won’t work on the @GOP because it’s not a political party. It’s an anti-democracy insurgency. https://t.co/5MfLpzRSAk
— Joy-Ann Pro-Democracy & Masks Reid 😷 (@JoyAnnReid) February 15, 2021
Reid has gotten herself into trouble before with inflammatory things she has said. On Election Night, she referred to Justice Clarence Thomas as “Uncle Clarence,” in an apparent reference to Uncle Tom. In September, she acknowledged that comparing Trump supporters to radicalized Muslim terrorists was not “in good faith.”
Reid apologized when a blog she wrote in the mid-2000s was unearthed in 2018 and found to be replete with homophobic comments. Reid at first claimed she was hacked, and then later issued an apology, claiming she didn’t believe she wrote her own blog.
“I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things, because they are completely alien to me,” Reid said. “But I can definitely understand, based on things I have tweeted and have written in the past, why some people don’t believe me. I’ve not been exempt from being dumb or cruel or hurtful to the very people I want to advocate for. I own that. I get it. And for that, I am truly, truly sorry.”