♪♪ ladies and gentlemen please welcome that because the governor kristi noem. [applause] ♪♪ [cheers and applause]

>> good afternoon. [applause] you all look wonderful. it is such an honor to be with all of you here today. thank you. now listen, listen my guess is a year ago most of you had no idea who i was. unlike the d.c. media i'm sure you will all at least now there to dakotas and i'm the governor of the warmer one. i'm here today to share some of the lessons from my state. the main question that needs to be answered this weekend is why does america need conservative's. ..

[applause] we had the lowest unemployment rate in over half a century bird and unemployment rate for blacks, hispanics asian americans reach the lowest level in history. more than 10 million have been lifted out of poverty and out of welfare. all of that changed in march. now most governors shutdown their estates with record unemployment, business is close, most doors were shuttered and committee suffered by the u.s. economy came to an immediate halt. now let me be clear, kobe did not crush the economy. government crush the economy.

[applause] and then just as quickly frankly the treasury department cannot print money fast enough to keep up with congress is worthless. not everyone smelled this path. south dakota is the only state in america that never ordered a single business or church to close. [cheering] [applause] [cheering] [applause] we never institute a shelter in place order. we never mandated that people wear masks.

we never even defined when the official business is because i don't believe the governors have the authority to tell you that your business is not essential. [cheering] [applause] now, stuff to close schools are no different than schools anywhere else in america. but we approach the pandemic differently. from the earliest days of the pandemic our priority was a students, their well-being and the education for its uncollectible in the fall we put our kids in the classroom. teachers, administrators, parents and students themselves will one mind to make things work for our children. the best way to do that was in the classroom. [applause] now common south dakota i provide all the information that we had for our people and then i trusted them to make the base best decision for themselves, their families and in turn their

community. we never focus on the case numbers we kept our eye on hospital capacity heard dr. fauci told me on my worst days i would have 10,000 patients in the hospital. on our worst day we had a little over 600. [cheering] [applause] i do not know if you agree with me, but dr. fauci is wrong a lot. [cheering] [applause] haven and a pandemic public health policies take into account people's economic and social well-being. people need sebo roof over their heads they need to feed their families and still need purpose, they need their dignity bred by

administration resisted the call for virus control at the expense of everything else. most of the science, the data and the facts and then we took a balanced approach. truthfully i never thought the decisions i was making would be unique. i thought there would be more to follow basic principles but i guess i was wrong. ask yourself this question, how far it will people go to enforce masked mandates? once you start lockdowns how long can you sustain them? in south dakota we had some cases in march and april but the virus did not hit the midwest until late fall. should we have cap two people in their homes for march onward? of course not. it's important to ask these questions. we have to show people how arbitrary these restrictions are. the coercion, the force, and tight liberty steps to enforce them. often, the enforcement is not based on fact.

just to find out these mitigation efforts has been anything but scientific. now, many in that media criticize south dakota's approach they labeled me as ill-informed, that i was reckless and even a denier. south dakota is as bad as it gets anywhere in the world when it comes to covid 19. that is a lie. [applause] that mediate did all of this by simultaneously praising governors who issued lockdowns. who lockdown and shutdown business applauding them i've taken the right steps to mitigate the strip of the virus at one point i appeared on george stephanopoulos sunday show. i don't know if you watch that, no? you don't? shocker. [laughter] he had just wrapped up a segment with your governor andrew cuomo

where he asked cuomo to give me some advice on how to deal with covid. [laughter] now seems like a really good time to remind everyone about governor cuomo was doing in new york. on march 25 the order covid patients to a nursing home and prohibited the staff from testing people before admitting them. nine days later he pushed legislation prohibiting nursing home lawsuits over covid death. six days after that he prohibited nursing homes from sending covid patients to the nearby naval hospital ship or the field hospital. both of which were essentially empty. eight days after that the first death started to show up. on generate 28th of this year the new york attorney general announced that cuomo and his administration significantly undercounted the number of covid related deaths by as much as

50%. to make matters worse, they tried to cover it up. that, that is the immediate covid hero. and by the way it, he also earned an ma and wrote a book on his covid response who needed the advice? again, in south dakota we did things differently. we applied common sense and governing principles but we never exceeded our hospital capacity and our economy is booming. we have the lowest unemployment rate in the nation. [applause] we are number one in the nation for keeping jobs, keeping businesses open and keeping money in the pockets of our people. [applause] the people of south dakota cut

their hours and wages at a higher rate than workers anywhere else in the nation. and our schools were open. [applause] america needs conservatives of the state and local level. but we also need conservatives at the highest level of government two. in america we have government of, by, and for the people. [applause] our founding fathers established our national constitution. the people of individual states grafted their own constitutions that play specific limits on the role of government. those limits are essential to preventing government officials from trampling on people's rights. the people themselves are primarily responsible for their own health and their well-being. entrusted with expansive freedom the free will to exercise the

right to work, worship and earn a living. no governor should ever dictate to the people which activities are officially approved or not approved. no governor should ever arrest, ticket or find people for exercising their freedom. governors and members of congress and the president have a duty to respect the rights of those who elected them. it seems these days conservatives are the only ones who know what that means. first of all, responsibility is considered a god-given gift in south dakota. personal responsibility is not a term that conservatives have abandoned. when i was preparing to come speak with you i came across the fastening remarks that were made back in 1962. listen to this. the declaration above all else was a document not of rhetoric

but of both decision. adecco declaration unleash an earlier revolution against the british, but a revolution in human affairs. this doctrine of national independence shook the globe remains the most powerful force anywhere in the world today. that is fantastic, right? those are the words of democrat president john f. kennedy. [applause] is there any wonder why ronald reagan often said i did not lead left lead the democratic party it left me. [applause] there was a time, there is a time both political parties clung to certain fundamental principles. but today we seem to not even sure the most basic ideals. america needs people who will stand up for the fundamental. america needs conservatives. it's easy to look back on 2020 and her number all the issues we had with covid.

culvert is only one piece of a very problematic puzzle. it certainly showed us how deep a divide really is how thin the barrier is between freedom and tyranny. but there is a worse movement happening in 2020. it is an ongoing problem. across america these last several months we watch and organize coordinated campaign to remove and eliminate all references to our nation's founding and many other parts of our history. rather than looking to the past to help improve our future, some are trying to wipe away the lessons of history. lessons we should be teaching to our children into our grandchildren. this approach focuses exclusively on our forefathers and it feels to capitalize on the opportunity to learn from their virtue. they have many of those. by discrediting the individuals who performed founding principles they create doubt and then they can remake america

into a very different political image. it is our job to help explain why this is wrong. remember america was not founded for the personal gain or personal power of been like a washington, adams and jefferson. the signers of the declaration of independence but their lives and their sacred honor on the line they affirmed peoples god-given freedom. still today the declaration of independence is one of the most important statements of purpose ever written and not just because it serves as a justification for independence of the entire world. but also because it has led to our prosperity and it has inspired many other nations and people to seek freedom. we the people. [applause] we the people have consented to a government that will serve all of us equally.

a government that will protect and uphold our god-given rights as well as the fundamental rights and newman aided by our constitution. it is our duty to renew our commitment to these ideals and pass them on to those who come after us. these cannot be dismissed as the opinions of flawed men. our founders had their flaws, certainly. to use those flaws to condemn their ideals and the greatest constitution the world has ever seen is both unjust and it is self-defeating. how many of us can even live up to her own ideals? without the words, the belief in the sacrifice of those if you, the world would not have an example of true freedom. to attempt to cancel the founding generation is an attempt to cancel our own freedom. let us all always remember that america is good. freedom is better than tierney. we are unique.

we are exceptional. no american should ever, ever apologize for that. [cheering] [applause] [applause] we should illustrate for the world the people thrive when government is limited in peoples andpeoples ingenuity their creativity is unleashed. we should also remind the world what happens with tyranny and oppression are allowed to thrive. too many are embracing china and nation that crushes freedom of speech and religion. china literally places to the respondent by trying to cover it up.

with two welded doors shut to lock families in their homeport france and china are not friends of freedom. make no mistake. there it's needed in the world. let's have a really candid conversation. everyone in this room and those listening at home know that america needs leaders right now. they need wisdom. they need the confidence to stand up for their principal and a will to act. those leaders need to be conservative. we have a lot of work to the coming months. what may have worked in the past is not good enough anymore not a good enough because your pocketbook will be bigger or we will cut your taxes reduce regulations. we'll fight against abortion or obamacare or whatever else. i'm not saying these things are not important. they are among the pillars of what we believe. conservatives must lead the nation away from borrowing against our children's future. we must put an end to the

accounting gimmicks used to deceive people. joe biden is bent and politics for 50 years. at that time our national debt was roughly four to $50 billion. today that's pretty close to what we pay in interest on the national debt. everyone is to blame we forgotten principles we held dear we articulate to the american people we're the only ones who respect them as human beings. we are the only ones who believe the american people have god-given rights. we are not here to tell you how to live your life. how to treat you like a child or criminal because you go to church or you defend yourself. conservatives respect people as individuals. we do not divide people based on their religion, their culture, or the color of their skin. we do not shun people who think for themselves and we understand every single person is different.

each person build his or her life without a bureaucrat telling them what they can or can't do. we don't have the media on our side. conservatives must be smarter than progressives. we must know our history. we must know what works and what doesn't work. we must think through the issues and make no mistake about it conservatives exist to fight for america. and for every single american. now, for those if you are disappointed about the election, i am too. remember, incredible innovation took place after goldwater's 1964 landslide loss. took the creation of many institutions including the american conservative union the right to life, the heritage foundation, the manhattan institute, concerned women for america the federalist society,

family research council and among others took a many to change hearts and to change minds. institution like these to bring about the american revolution and my exceptionalism back. their work is more important today than ever before. so, what can you do right now? it is really simple. you could be bold. you can show up, and debate these ideas. persuade your neighbors. this pandemic illustrated many politicians have a totally different vision for government that with the founders laid out. it was once said they want to be our shepherd. that requires us to be the sheep. let it be heard loud and clear from us right now, we will not be sheep.

[applause] [cheering] >> usa. u.s. a. i would like to close today with a story. my dad was a cowboy. he was the toughest person that i have ever known. ever since i was a real little girl i just wanted to grow up and be like him. he died in an accident on our farm is 20 to two years old a couple months after its kill the family got the courage to go out and clean out his pickup. all of you have a farmer or rancher in your life you know they often live out of the pickup. everything important can be found in a cab there wallets, bills to pay, tools, you name it. and if you need to find something important, every

single one of us farmer kids knows the pickup is the first place you look. as a new general manager of the business, a couple months after dad died i knew that where the pickup was, what wasn't it and it needed to clean it out eventually. but those months had also been filled with hundreds and hundreds of questions. what seed should we be planting? what field should be plant first? what's the price we need to sell a cab for two cash for the cattle operation? i did not have us answers. i remember wishing over and over again if i could just ask dad. if i could just ask dad one more question. frankly i was running the business, but i was daily at fag my way through it. i had no idea how we're going to keep our family business going without my dad. i was determined that we are not going to fail. that day as it carried a box up to the pickup and it was time to clean it out or i stuck my hand

out of the consul in the middle between the chairs, and the front seat i started to put items in the boxes taking out. the person with suppliers, how many of you know what a players is? a baby ruth candy bar, remember that was a favorite, tools, and then i found a little tiny tape recorder. the kind of tape recorder a doctor dictates into. i pushed the play button and media i heard my dad's voice. he was talking about seed corn varieties which ones had performed well on certain fields that we owned, a certain soil types he spoke about how he had such a wet year, the report that resulted in poor crop yield and we had a tough harvest he would on to describe what kind of variety of choices he would've made differently. what he thought might work better for this spring we were anticipating ahead. my eyes started filled with tears as i realized i was learning information that was going to be helpful to me and

making crop decisions. i looked out into the consul and i found several more tapes almost a dozen of them in all. one by one and put them in the tape recorder sitting in that pickup and night listen to my dad's voice and talk about the cows, weather, markets, and what to do if we were ever caught in a tough financial situation. inside those tapes were the answers to so many of the questions that i had had over the past several months. over and over again i had said if i could just ask dad. and here in my hands were all of the answers that i needed straight from him and his voice in the palm of my hand. now, in that moment in that moment i felt a strange sort of peace settled over me. i know scripture talks a peace that passes all understanding. it's almost as if at that moment god was saying for me i will provide, stop worrying, you will be okay.

who are family will be okay. i have got this. i had the answers, i just needed to get to work. now dad was always the hardest worker that i knew pre-lead by example and he led by anxious action but that it would change everything was his word i made a decision that day to be like my dad a person of words, but a person of action. because both matter. that's why iran for office. my mission is to make south dakota a better place. a better place to live, to do business, and to raise a family. were the reasons i care so deeply about these issues is because i want these things for my family and for every single american family. i believe south dakota has been exampled to the nation this past year. people use personal responsibility to protect the families health and their way of life while the government respected the right and their freedom. [applause]

[applause] we are working together to create new opportunities of a better future for our kids. we took the american bath. let me close with this as conservatives we often forget the stories are much more powerful than a facts and statistics. our stories need to be told. it is the only way that we will inspire and motivate the american people to preserve this great country. we must go into this fight for freedom with her eyes wide open educated tactics the liberals will use but pure in our motives. this is not about us. it is about our children and their future. it's about the nation we are going to pass on to them. it's about telling the stories over and over. to remind us why america needs conservatives now more than ever. so thank you for all that you

do. america is blessed to have you on her side. god bless each and every one of you. and may god bless the united states of america. ♪ library valley california. [applause]

>> good evening, great to see you. director of the american institute. home of the reagan foundation washington d.c. since 2018 just across lafayette white house in our men and women are premium around the world. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america.

to the republic for which it stands one nation under god thank you. >> before we get better, there are people i would like to recognize. >> corporate federal prosecutor not reagan library that back executive director the presidential nation. [applause] i want to welcome you to the

reagan library for the latest installment ready nation. to manage from behind the scenes from the beginning i'll be stepping forward more often. presidential library is one of the ways we honor and remember american leaders of the past speakers on state have been thinking about one of the other waste four of our greatest presidents. so powerful not just in america but around the world president polonsky during the recent address and gazing on the

mountainside peter roosevelt in overtime shaped by roosevelt who resolution. the first woman to hold the seat

and her first term now running her second. she will release her book not my first rodeo later this summer. i am pleased to announce shall be back at the reagan library for conversation and book signing. you better sign up. [applause] especially in recent years defined herself as champion and so many americans are frustrated. ronald reagan knew that frustration.

and themselves. in the fundamental question moves on the past.

and recently, gone. tonight the purpose and despite legacy in the monument, this is not. we are not trying to go backwards. but he was transformative and we believe in the republican party in the brave future as well. [applause]

>> no pressure, right? it is an honor to be here. there's no greater place to have these conversations. we were a bit washed. since i was a little girl.

i found myself alone in a quiet moment. i remember being overwhelmed and all i could do was bow my head next to a portrait of reagan and much more recently those dream come true. it felt familiar it was really

rare. we watched john wayne movies. he are burning daylight. leading to the pasture to go to the firm for years led my horses back and forth.

and is not until i was older this is a phrase of ronald reagan. political awakening in somebody families as i address this, we would wake up, we never discussed around the table. we knew we had freedom and personal responsibility and make our corner of the world a better place and it wasn't any more complicated than that. i was nine years old when reagan was elected.

[laughter] i read of reagan's genuine sorrow. i didn't know what it felt like until i became governor. and as you know ronald reagan was also 33rd governor. the world is a very different place today. i came across a speech in the reflected so many. i feel his words resonate with us all now.

too every person trapped in tierney's, we send our love and support. the struggle is real, your dreams are our dreams. you will be free. what's happening in ukraine is tragic. the reagan freedom award. fight for freedom for the ukrainian people. may god bless the people of ukraine. [applause] it may seem ironic the first award was presented by reagan

himself. what a horrible time that was. the successor is attempting to destroy his legacy. make no mistake putin is an evil man. other dictators throughout freedom the sizes freedom. clear watching daily on democracy and the reminder of reagan's famous words. freedom is never one generation away from freedom. they must be fought for, protected and handed on. one day we will tell our years telling our children and children's children what was once like and then we are free. in 2024 than any other governor in america traveled to 17 states to campaign for transfer election efforts.

i know elections have consequences. his administration restored dominance of the world stage and energy independence and we are respected by our allies one of the strongest this nation has ever seen defended our borders, a country with no borders is no country at all. [applause] that's why i have deployed national guard to make sure seven fours are secure. [applause] 's unfortunately with the help of the mainstream media joe biden was elected president of the united states is sadly

america's president today is not fighting for our freedom. joe biden is doing the exact opposite and in our time tonight i will share a few thoughts on international challenges and then what we need to do here at home and i will say if we defend democracy will lose our freedoms at home and we will have failed. joe biden has been wrong on every foreign policy decision he's been part of. if the leadership in the white house peace through strength by supporting military standing strong against iran, north korea and china not facilitating devastating with disastrous withdrawal with 13 american patriots and we were shot. even though biden double down

crippling domestic energy supply. he said that the keystone pipeline while allowing it to continue to operate relies on russia to broker a nuclear deal marches rockets at americans in iraq. it is absurd and empowers adversaries. clear threats to the united states but there's more ruthless promised leaders manipulating currency losing regulations to create unfair practices and agreements from the un while the u.s. and that have their lights on your list supplied by of

chemicals and fertilizer and processing facilities the groceries on ourselves. one of the countries grow our food, they control our food. when another country controls our food, they control us. it's part of china's plan to control the united states. it is the president's job to address these challenges. joe biden cannot or will not be the leader america needs. when it comes to domestic policy, things aren't any better than we are burning daylight. joe biden is in the seventh and weakness has he reversible consequences. we need a leader with vision and

thank the correct our nation. great american stories have been turned into a dark chapter in that fear, doubt. some say it's worse because democrats have a darker motivation today democrats are about control. the question tonight what is the republican party going to do about it? abigail adams wrote habits are formed with difficulty. we confront greatness. as a party and the people.

under lincoln, are republican party preserves the union which means from our earliest days preserving the dignity of every americans like to put together in times of turmoil the greatest country in human history. we brought together for, reason and representative government. in the constitution of the united states.

and never be infringed on. a fair and equitable criminal justice system. and an unprecedented way the last two years. they give them an excuse to do so. media soaked. health experts manipulated data and ignored science. doctor fauci lied repeatedly.

i watched people in this country give up their freedom. they could not hold gathering some of the key about their freedom because the government told him about their freedom of religion and allow citizens to be canceled and silenced. the left not to criminalize the. when someone raises legitimate questions about any number of issues critical race. taught in our schools if you, kid punished. the republican party must be from a fullback joe biden's assault on the bill of rights. freedom of speech the ability

their own prerogative essential for society. it matters to his in charge and they will have failed in its very clear what the consequences are from state to state of give and democrat leaders. the mandates and soldiers and precious time in the classroom and crippled by regulation. law & order has been eliminated.

when iran for governor example to the nation because we were a smaller state, we do things. for the nation and reform and an opportunity for people. i have no idea opportunities with come because of the pandemic i wager everything here congress.

and a sunday morning show and governor follow to give me advice. [applause] in homes then covered it up. i made my this is differently. research the data but i took it a step further talks to my general counsel and what

authority i didn't have. [applause] i never even defined what it was because the bleach governors have the authority. [applause] give him all the information that i have but i'll let them use personal responsibilities for their families today and

south dakota we have the number one economy in the country. [applause] we have the amount of businesses and hours lost by workers during the pandemic, the least amount of wages lost by employees. i was the only governor in the country that took him down. [applause] and said thank you, mr. president for the flexibility but we don't need it. our people want to work. we taken historic revenues from our thriving economy. no personal property tax. [applause]

into sales tax. we've invested in dams, infrastructure and high-speed internet access during my years as governor in the projects in one year. [applause] [applause] and south dakota it won't cost you a penny to exercise your second amendment rights. pay for your background check.

[applause] south dakota leads the outcome for children because they were in the classroom throughout the pandemic. we have said for years, we did it and it worked. rc is thriving and people are happy if last year we lost 2000.

new hampshire and south dakota. that began a messaging campaign pacifically for law enforcement officers. if you want to live somewhere where they respective, come to think of. and one week, 900 law enforcement officers raise their hands and said i want to live in south dakota. [applause] they brought and signed into law the strongest in the nation to protect sports.

[applause] an opportunity. we passed another signed into law over a dozen bills. [applause] and these policies were inside by provoking values.

israel, jordan, saudi arabia, canton, china, greece, italy and many more. one that i will never forget, militarized. south korean soldiers lined up facing north. the richest yards away facing soil. keeping peace. north korean soldiers antagonized their warriors, they were sitting on them, shining on the taking pictures, trying to break the composer yeah our men

and women strong. if there was never example, it was right there. he's everyday that strength begins at home. stand-alone solutions is the world's most powerful. in the past we have plenty tested. there are many rising to the challenge. but there are examples where we as a party have failed relief amongst ourselves concerned about political goals losing our focus on living under the burden of bad policies and laws. i entered legislative session that would require more civics and history in the classroom.

i thought our children fully did not understand. it was republicans that killed that legislation. they that would be too much of a hardship and they didn't want to divert the time away. some republicans voted against it. they were more interested in fighting me what they weren't even focusing on our children. rt has infiltrated and parents are raising up for our kids. the same legislatures have joined with me to fan crt in support true american history in our classroom.

[applause] >> when it comes to putting in the hard work on twitter and consequences of her actions. couldn't just make decisions for my people. explain to them why i was making decisions and how they pull press conference. and what he gave to them. i gave a press conference, under god the people.

and shut off the tv and go for a walk. people need leaders willing to spend hours researching, studying and working and communicating. first elected to the legislature. and what we don't do matters. and how much will it cost the taxpayers 12 answers to get the

information i need to decide whether or not to support the bill or site should it make it to my desk. what will be the impact over the next generation effects will think it only target of the consequences a week from now or a year from now in the long-term consequence, 20 years and we not know the impact on our kids and grandkids. the consequences. we all have people in our lives we stop talking to and amended

by the they are too far the other end of the political spectrum. no sense wasting words and we need to get over ourselves. republicans left. [applause] and lovely. we do not this, we are missing an opportunity.

and way too conservative for a time. worked across the aisle. remain true to our supposed. the way that brings hope and optimism.

in teddy roosevelt not in the still count of life and washington. the tenacity and values. in the founders will not exactly

and the only legitimate way. if they do it, america will be free. we'll be safe again. it is what they are desperate for. our will and courage. it is not to give up, it's for us to to get up every day and bill the country where men and

women are free to think will create, build and believe. the birthright of every american. here at home and beyond. i believe that we can. [applause]

to discuss her book, not my first rodeo. we are going to get right into not my first rodeo. >> really focus on reelection this year. that is my goal and the leadership in this country and a lot of people are interested in that job.

in 2024 will speculate in the nature of politics i have not. over the time traveling and we are in the midst right now in washington. and from the capital. and what i've seen in the

discouraging not necessarily factual and so many things going on in the opportunity for their career and protect the freedom. the republican party and if he chooses to run in 2024 to the other republicans have a side

but i wanted to talk about the republican party in the aftermath of the 2020 election delivering a speech at a meeting in georgia. interparty has fallen short. and the short time. and that is what the country is desperate for. he looked at my state of california and what we did what they believe in the last four years and had a very limited government go and gave

flexibility. people are driving the leadership of consequence. and what our founders gave us. >> the republican majority. with the democrat still in the white house.

in broken in washington d.c. i talked about this in my book released teek called out my first rodeo but talk about the dysfunction in and when i did serve in congress the first couple of years barack obama in

the white house and we learned how to figure out a way to pass old wanted to do in the house, i did not get past but it is in the system. cast a vision for where we are going even though they are better for our country, i do think we have to be pretty clear what we are for. the opportunity to get congressional bills passed. >> discuss a lot about what you are for and your experiences which want to discuss in a minute but do you think republicans outside of south dakota a good job casting a vision for what republicans will do? >> i think it depends on the

republicans and their message. many what the regulations better trade relations against peace through strength but it's all they talk about what they are doing to get the house back. prospectus, they been successful, the people of home care and the governor elected in virginia focusing on what people care about throughout the state. the national political divisive tactics focusing on what the care about and it is a discipline we can all learn is

with the people at home want to focus on that we should be looking at. >> let's get into your book if you haven't written one of these before, not only is it might appear i want to ask you not my first rodeo, what is your book about? >> most people assume it's a political book on the political topics of the day but it's a story of my life so far, what i've learned over the years. how a group on a ranch in a very big presence, having a strong work ethic, we don't complain about things, we fix them.

i think a lot of people heard my name during covid but it's important to note that was not my first challenger went through. i had a life before that some of those experiences give people a better understanding of how i make decisions as a whole office today.

and couldn't believe what i just heard in the story to fill in for us. and it really was the change. in my older brother of state and

younger brother still in high spoke and i became general manager of a large business a lot of people working for me over and over again 22. i was wishing i could ask my dad questions. working all the time figure out how to keep the business together and pay the bill. and ran out. and micro site recorder. tapes were answers i wish i had.

even he talked he thought we would be when we were in some of those were almost ten years old. nobody had any idea doing something like that. the answer to every question i could possibly have had on like a prayer delivered and answered and i felt a peace that passes all understanding almost like i just think they cared enough to give me the answers we would be fine. >> how long it's been in the

family. in my land and my grandfather in the first piece of land not having been $2 to script together. i come from a family that recognized the value of owning something and thought is it making anymore think. and the foundation.

>> you talk about a moment what you refer to as native land and you can get excited about it. >> that's where i live and it's rare to find native ground. it's never been plowed, it's the same as it would have been hundreds of years ago ended special. there are certain native flowers and only rosa native ground turn it, it will never grow again so i always treasured rough prairie like that being young and my dad showing me this place hundreds of acres that was native and i wanted to live there someday and i bought, it's my masking and if i could live there monday and

him saying someday i will let you buy it from me, no free lunch in my dad's world so i eventually did and my husband and i still live there today. >> were the different things today? >> when i went to congress, i have four similes, we worked in partnership with my mom many years but in congress would become a lot so my brothers bought my sister and i out of business operation and still have equity in the land but they run the business and they do the forming today. >> a lot of children grow up in a family business and either reject the family business or

don't want to go on the same line of work as their parents, this is something you great and i try to get a sense of how much this was about circumstance for you given your father's accident or something you decided you want to do. ... i don't know what that would look like in the future but i did not think i could ever be happy not farming and ranching. my passion is animals. i love the land. i love being outdoors. the fact i do what i do today is strange, was never on my radar.

my plan was always to be involved in the family business. the fact i'm not today is a very unique circumstance. >> you spend time in not my first rodeo talking about your parents. who are they, where do they come from? how did they meet? >> my dad grew up in the same area as my mom. my mom grew up in watertown about 20 miles away. both from south dakota both the northeastern corner. my dad was raised out in the country farming and raising cattle. my mom was a city girl. [inaudible] >> the town is bobby 15-20,000 people. bobby not a city girl in terms of what a lot of the country thinks but she had, she certainly had four h and showed cattle before so i guess that still doesn't make her quite the city girl a lot of people would say but she had never run tractors and led the kind of

like my dad had required when she married him. she says when she got married she moved up to the farm and the salome because it was so far away from her family, billy when in town on sundays really and she was put in attractive fiction fictional idea what to do. i think they met through high school friends but quickly fell in love. got married and in my mom so light became then run the business with my dad. he worked so hard all the time. he was a peacemaker. she's wanted kept us alive. he was always coming in house and saying let's go, let's go, let's go. she was one shoving food in her pockets and it is on the way to the field or eat this on the way to haul cattle and taking care of us kids and running parts and stuff around the country supporting the business as well. >> host: do you guys know how far back your family goes in south dakota and where they came from? >> guest: my grandfather on my

mother's side, it was his parents that came over from norway. my dad's grandparents had been here before but they were more german, but they were originally settled up north of us probably about 50 miles. you know, at least four generations in this country, but very much tied to the land when they came. they worked and earned every single thing that they have today. >> host: and your siblings you talk a lot about them, you write a lot about them in "not my first rodeo." what was your relationship like growing up? what has it been like as governor and if they every get out of line do you threaten them with tax audits or anything crazy? >> guest: no. it's funny how different we all are. my sister is the oldest and i tell people all the time i may run south dakota but she still runs my life.

when cindy tells me to do something i do it, and she's the one who when i went to congress got elected that was such a different thing for our family. i was leading 4-h groups. i was the children's pastor at our church. i was running businesses. my kids were little. she's the one who filled in all the holes. she took over every job that i suddenly dropped. she took care of my kids, ran treats to school, took them to the doctor. her and my mom were incredibly helpful with the sudden upheaval in life when i decided for the first time out of all of us to go do something different. my brother rock went to college to get a psychology degree. he was never going to come back and be a part of the business until my dad passed away, and came home to help for a little while, didn't want to be a part of the business but after a couple of years decided to stay. so rock is the one that, he's a second oldest. cindy is the oldest, then rock and rock is the one who when you say didn't sleep very well last night, i had a bunch of dreams and kept me awake. he says kristi, tell me all about the dreams you had and wants to do an analysis on me. he's wonderful and a very deep thinker, very thoughtful.

and then i am the third out of four and then my brother rob is the baby of the family, but he is the big guy and he is probably the most wonderful father i've ever met before. he has six children, three that he has adopted and hard worker. he calls me almost every day to check on me and make sure i'm doing okay. you know, loves machinery and working outside and really is a man of the land. so i probably am closest right now to rob. when i was farming it was cindy, but we all just recognize that what we had growing up in our family being so close and spending over 20 years being in business together was a really special way to grow up. all of our children feel like they are brothers and sisters because everyday they were together while we were running our operation, growing up together the same age, and that doesn't happen everywhere in the country.

>> host: no, it doesn't. family businesses can be quite contentious and it doesn't always go well and i have some personal experience with that. you have an anniversary that's coming up or, if already happened, depending on when people are watching this. talk to me about how you met your husband and how did you end up, and i think people may find this interesting, how did you end up honeymooning at dodger stadium in los angeles? that's my neck of the woods so, i can almost look at l.a. like sort of a small town depending on how much traffic i have to fight to get anywhere. but that had to be some real culture shock for you guys back then, but talk about that. >> guest: yes. my husband went to the same high school i did. he was two years older than me. we didn't start dating until he went to college. i'm still in high school but he was in college.

to be honest with you, he was one of my brother's friends and we started dating, and it was interesting because when we got engaged and were going to get married he hadn't left the state of south dakota before. in fact, i think he had only gone maybe to minneapolis once for like a twins game, but he was a huge dodger fan. his dad was a brooklyn dodger fan and had always watched games, listened to games, and it was a very big decision for him on where he wanted to go on the honeymoon. if you could go anywhere in the world where would you go? and he just struggled with that. of course we didn't have any money so doing something on a budget was important. we were trying to figure out what to do and finally he was struggling so much i said, listen, if you could go anywhere in the world where would you go? without even thinking he said dodger stadium. i said all right, well then let's go to dodger stadium for our honeymoon, and booked it. the problem was the dodgers didn't play until about two weeks after we got married. so we got married and then went

right back to work at the farm the next day. and two weeks later left for honeymoon, and i did not realize when i agreed to go to dodger stadium though that i was agreeing to go to the entire series, and that meant all the batting practice as well and staying until the entire games were over. my husband was so enthralled with being there that he brought my dad's video camera, which at that time if you think about this, this was back in the '90s, it was bright yellow, it was as big as a suitcase and he video cameras were not allowed in dodger stadium. he snuck it in everyday, then went around and tried to video everything that he could and then was chased by security guards and i would just sit there for hours and think what kind of honeymoon is this? but they would eventually take it away from him. but i think we came home from that honeymoon with about 11 or 12 hours of videotape of just dodger stadium, because he loved it so much. that was an interesting honeymoon but very special because he was thrilled to be there.

we have been married 30 years now, and eventually about ten years later he did take me on a cruise so i did get a different kind of a trip about ten years later. but yeah, very special guy. i think that he, when he married me i was going to be a farmer. he didn't necessarily sign up for this crazy life that we live, but he has hung in there and really been the support that i need to continue doing what i'm doing. >> host: to his credit dodger stadium is one of the most beautiful baseball stadiums in the country. so he has good taste. >> guest: yes, he does. and it was beautiful. i just ate a lot of dodger dogs that week. >> host: you probably got your fill. "not my first rodeo: lessons from the heartland" is the book. governor kristi noem of south dakota is the author. let's talk about, well, your first rodeo. you decide after a while of running the farm to get involved in politics and it sort of

started out innocently enough because whenever you run a business you are very attune to government regulations, taxes, more so than if you are just getting a check every week. that sort of got you involved in policy and having opinions on that, but you make the leap to run for a seat in the state legislature. what were you thinking at the time and how did your family react? because this is not in the grand scheme of things that long ago, and in a modern era when somebody runs for congress the spotlight hits their family, their family's business dealings and all sorts of things. it's not just the candidate. >> guest: i would say after my dad passed away within a year or two i had received some awards that kind of put me on people's radar. i was named south dakota's outstanding young farmer within a few years after dad passed and then south dakota's outstanding young leader, and at that time our senator was tom daschle. he was the majority leader in

the senate and was from south dakota and i was at a lot of his meetings. he ended up appointing me to a board that oversaw all the federal farm programs in the state sobs involved in policy, and showing up with different people and people started to ask me to consider running for the state legislature. it was interesting because asking my family they just thought well, that's strange, and nobody's done that before, but in our state the legislature meets for 40 days a year, you go in in january, you balance the budget, pass bills and then go back home and back to your jobs. it wasn't that big of a commitment outside of session, and we figured we would try it and if it worked then everything would be okay. i did that, got elected and ran for leadership right away and served as the assistant majority leader in the house but that's really when a lot of pressure started to come to run for

congress, which i was not interested in doing at all. in fact, people asked for two years if my husband and i would consider running for congress because we were represented in the u.s. house by a blue dog democrat. and, of course, i was republican and people wanted me to challenge that representative before she decided to go after john thune who was our u.s. senator. so i think a lot of john thune supporters and he himself were interested in me challenging her and beating her before she decided to run for the senate. eventually, after two years of people calling and talking, and i explain a lot of this in the book as well that i finally said to my husband, maybe we just run and if we lose people will leave us alone, and we can quit talking about this. because she was very popular at the time and hadn't voted for obamacare or the stimulus package, but she had voted for nancy pelosi and spent a lot of my time during that campaign talking about that. that was really when things got elevated to more of a national

level because that was a heated campaign, one of the top five races in the nation at the time and very contentious. i would say i was admittedly out of my element and it was a very interesting, difficult campaign for me. >> host: that democrat was stephanie sandlin and she made south dakota very competitive for democrats just before it seemed like politics in your state tipped to the right but i wanted to back up for a minute. i was really, and i'm supposed to know this stuff but i did not realize you had a relationship of sorts with tom daschle, former senator from south dakota, democratic majority leader in the u.s. senate. just talk about that because we don't see that sort of thing that often anymore. >> guest: yeah. tom was always very good to me. in fact, he gave me opportunities that i would say even republicans wouldn't give me opportunities to do.

in south dakota i think for a democrat to be elected and even for republicans you need to be a little bipartisan and work together. south dakota is very populist. people think it's very conservative and it's really not. in fact, my last race when i ran for governor just three and a half years ago i only won by three points and it was against a guy who was a bernie sanders supporter. it's very much a state that can go back and forth, and tom was being, you know, was the majority leader, very influential. i cared about farm bills. i cared about tax reform, and i was somebody who didn't complain about things. i tried to show up and be a part of the solution, and i think he appreciated that. he had a leadership camp every year that he would host for new leaders in the state that he thought had potential to serve, and he did invite me to that one year. and i went. it was in the black hills for a weekend and he brought in speakers and we spent time together talking about policy

and what it's like to run for office. it's interesting to me because i never once considered becoming a democrat. i think maybe he probably hoped i would, but boy, for years after that even when i ran for congress i had a lot of republicans who questioned if i was truly a republican just because i had attended that leadership camp that tom daschle had hosted. it was surprised by how they felt like that tainted my credentials to even be a republican that i would go and spend time with democrats. >> host: it struck me in reading "not my first rodeo" that politics is something that you really, i don't know if the phrase would be fell in love with, but for somebody who wasn't steeped in it necessarily and came to it later in life, i feel like you dove right in and in a sense found your calling. just talk about doing this for a living the past two years and

how it has felt in terms of the professional satisfaction you have gotten from the work. >> guest: you know, my husband will tell you i'm kind of obsessive with everything i do. whatever i do i do 110%. even when i worked at the farm i was working 20 hour days. the kids were coming with me in the tractors. we were always adding more and more things to, you know, what we needed to get accomplished every day. i had a grandmother told me when i was having my first daughter that i needed to say yes to things. the world is filled with people who say no, i'm too busy. no, i can't do that, and i should be a mom. who said yes and i should be a person who says yes, and it took that to heart. i would think while i dove in headfirst and going 100 miles an hour in politics i kind of did that with everything. in fact, i tell a couple stories in the book about how i decide

one time to take up quilting, and that was not very smart because my mom finally came in after i hadn't slept for three days because i couldn't stop until the quilt was done. she said i don't think quilting is for you. it's supposed to be relaxing and you're supposed to sleep. but for me i couldn't stop until i got the project done. that's a little bit of my personality, but i definitely recognize that if i'm going to be gone from my family, i'm going to be gone from my commitments at the businesses, then i want to make a difference. i might as well be in leadership, be the person in the room making the decisions, and that's kind of the approach that i've always had is when i'm gone someday i want people to at least say she lived a life of significance. >> host: so that obsessiveness that you you describe actual and a lot more context to a story you talk about in "not my first rodeo: lessons from the heartland" about soon after your first arrived in the state

legislature, and it was about the use of abortion which is very timely right now. i just want to read from this from your book, but you immediately, and correct me if i'm misremembering the story, you immediately proposed legislation to pro-life legislation to curtail abortion rights, or however you would like to describe it, and some of the republicans also obviously pro-life republicans in the legislature told you it was bad strategy. they weren't pleased with it. you immediately e-mailed your constituents back home. that e-mail made its way into a blog and it became much the topic of conversation in your state. you write about the articles that were written, the article made me sound arrogant and naïve and, frankly, i was. i had sent the message to everyone that i couldn't be trusted. if i disagree with someone i

would start attacking them with emails to constituents. talk to me about how informative that experience was and how you develop your governing style, even on issues where you are extremely passionate and where you're very principled, and how that approach is how you've governed as a chief executive. >> guest: that situation, i was brand-new to the legislature, you know, wanted to do something impactful. we had just had a ballot initiative that would've completely banned abortion and the state. and it had gone to the public and it had failed, and i wanted to immediately the bring another bill forward in that would have the debate in the legislature. i remember having a meeting with those who cared about this issue and just in shock that the states president of right to life was against bringing a bill. it was a man for my own district, the other representative, but he also was my husband's cousin. so that tells you how small

south dakota is, but i was just so surprised by it that i went and immediately after the meeting e-mailed people back home and said they need to call him and talk to him and then that made it into the public news stories. i realized immediately how bad i sounded like a know it all, that i didn't even go to him and really discuss it with him. instead i decided to start emailing people back home who didn't have context of what was said in that meeting or the strategy behind it, and it was a very teachable moment for me. you know, that i didn't want to be the kind of person who ambushed others in policy, and a recognize that trust is something where you create an environment where you build a team. it's not where you either trust somebody or don't. it's almost like a bank account. you do different actions how you treat people how you talk to them and how dependable you are is building trust day after day after day and wanted my colleagues to know that i'm

somebody who was reasonable, logical, smart and could look at the consequences of everything that we did and make sure that it was the right thing to do. so i appreciated that teaching lesson. it was pretty miserable because i was brand-new, and everybody avoided me after that. everybody was talking about me and i felt like that i really had gotten off on the wrong foot and that's when the majority leader larry roden came to me, invited me out to dinner that night. he tells everybody that the reason he did that is he went around to other members and people that worked in the legislature or lobbyists and said hey do you want to grab dinner with kristi noem and me? she doesn't have any friends. they agreed and those four men that came to that dinner that night, you know, with this young mom and shared a meal and also their thoughts and knowledge about the legislature are still my dearest friends today. >> host: so i thought that i think one of the reasons that

that particular anecdote from "not my first rodeo: lessons from the heartland" jumped out at me as we are talking in the immediate aftermath of the supreme court decision in dobbs v. jackson women's health center. as you are well aware, the country as well aware that decision overturned roe v. wade and a limited federal protections for abortion rights and has returned that question to the states. what does abortion, what do abortion rights look like in south dakota in the aftermath of you and the legislature now having the ability to decide on this question? >> guest: well, in 2005 south dakota had passed a bill that put in place a trigger law that said if roe was ever overturned that abortion would be illegal in the state, except to save the life of a mother. so that is the law today, and i know that -- >> host: excuse me, what is

the prohibition begin in pregnancy, and is the life of mother the only exception? >> guest: the life of the mother is the only exception today as the statute reads, and it is not any consequences against the mother where it would add any kind of punishment would be on the doctors responsibility for a doctor who had knowingly break the law, they are the ones who would be prosecuted, never the women that would be involved in the situation with an unplanned pregnancy or a crisis that they feel they might be facing because of this situation. >> host: and where does south dakota law in this trigger law, where does the prohibition come in, at conception, six weeks, 15 weeks, where is it? >> guest: yeah, it is in the first trimester and it is when that pregnancy can be detected. so that's part of the debate and if you remember, the next case that would come before the supreme court is a south dakota case. we had been watching the dobbs

case in south dakota, recognizing it could overturn roe but we believe that if it did not the next case that the supreme court would hear would be planned parenthood versus noem and it's the decision on informed consent case that now i believe planned parenthood is asking to be dismissed because of the decision that we have seen come down on roe v. wade. >> host: is this essentially a heartbeat bill? in other words once a heartbeat has been detected and there's a viable pregnancy, that that's when the prohibition kicks in? >> guest: we actually had a debate this year on doing a heartbeat bill much like texas that would've put it in place overturned or not. it was interesting to me because we had some division among republicans this year about that. many republicans in the legislature did not want to bring a heartbeat bill because they felt it would jeopardize our supreme court case. they didn't want planned parenthood to completely pull out of the state because they

felt like that would undermine the case that we would have that may overturn roe. i wanted to introduce the bill, brought it forward and the legislature refused to accept it, but my belief is that that is what the debate should be is around when you can detect that heartbeat, that that is we know a human being and a life and that that is when the protection will kick in. >> host: i don't mean to belabor this but just can you help define for me a little bit better where in the first trimester is abortion still legal and at what point in the first trimester does it become illegal? >> guest: yes, it is when that pregnancy is determined between the woman and the doctor, when there's notification. so abortions are illegal as of today except to save the life of the mother. >> host: okay and in response

to criticism often from democrats but not only democrats that south dakota law does not allow exceptions in cases of rape and incest, how would you respond to that? >> guest: i think that will continue to be a debate. i think there's people here in south dakota that are continuing to talk about that. for me personally it's a difficult conversation because i know that this tragic situation that happens to women is horrific, and i can't even imagine. i've never had to go through anything like that, so i just never believed that a tragedy should be followed up by another tragedy, and we know from science and technology over the years, the last ten to 15 years, that this is a life. this is a baby in the womb, that it does feel pain at a certain point and we also know that when doctors do procedures on these babies in the womb that they are defined as patients, that the patient's rights, and it's very difficult to say this is a patient that has rights and not say that it is a human life at the same time. so an intelligent conversation on what every life is precious means i think is something the public will continue to debate

when they see what these laws look like from state to state. >> host: would you like to see congress where you once served pass legislation banning abortion nationally? >> guest: i think it's appropriate right now that the discussion happens at the state level. that's really what the constitution defines as the responsibility of the state. so i'm thankful for the supreme court decision that said this would be debated amongst a government close to the people, instead of at the federal level. >> host: in "not my first rodeo: lessons from the heartland" you recount the story that always sticks with me when i'm telling the story, for whatever reason, about the republican majority elected in 2010 and sort of the leadership difficulties, speaker john boehner, majority leader eric cantor and their team had in corralling this what was then a new tea party majority. in telling the story sometimes i

think it's informative for people when you're looking for republicans in congress now to had in unifying what surprised me to some degree although it makes sense that you would not want an agricultural bill messed with, given how important this is to south dakota, was that you had a colleague and you talk rodeo" that wanted to put work requirements for food stamps into the agricultural bill and this is where these things are dealt with. while you felt that may have been worthy, you refer to it as a poison pill and you really worked over leadership hard not to bend on this and to get the agricultural bill through. and that struck me as, as conservative as you are on policy, there's this pragmatic side to how you govern. i think sometimes you've been criticized for that from the right. talk about what that experience was like and how it has sort of informed your policymaking style. >> guest: well, i think it's good to understand first of all

that i view food policy as a national security issue. when another country grows our food for us that that's when they control us. so america has always embraced a safe food policy and also an affordable one. it's important to us that every family in this country can afford to go to a grocery store and buy what they need to feed their families. that's one of the reasons you have a farm bill. it's a safety net program. i tell people all the time farmers go to the bank, they borrow money and put it in the dirt and hope that months later the rain will have fallen, sun will shine and they can pick up something to go pay their bills. you can make an okay living for 20 years being a farmer and you can have one bad year and lose everything. that safety net is incredibly important. it's always been a bipartisan

progress. >> talk about that because people need to understand where it comes from and why it's important with farmers in this country but also when it's important i will challenge leaders even if i'm just the only member of the house from my state fighting alone and nobody is with me, that i will stand up and push because if it's important and if it matters then it's worth it. and i went. i won the discussn.

>> governor noem i think the reason that story jumped out at me is because in looking at the tea party era i believe talked to other republicans, former colleagues of yours that felt they had a chance even with barack obama in the white house to move conservative policy forward however slowly, however sometimes frustratingly small. but because there were too many in the group that wanted more, that didn't want to compromise on what they felt were principles, the whole thing came crashing down and i wonder if it would be instructive for the next republican majority if you can get some movement even with joe biden in the white house, take it, and that's what i sort of felt like you were saying with this story in "not my first rodeo." am i misinterpreting what you were talking about? >> guest: no, i think that's a very good lesson to have. it's also incredibly important that leaders lay out the full

plan, you know, that members have a confidence of where you're going as well. they might be willing to support a bill like that that didn't have everything in it if they knew it would be addressed and could trust that is going to be addressed into the future. i think that's where we have fallen down in the past as republicans is not having a strategic plan showing people where we are going to make a big difference far into the future. so in this day and age what gets people results is blow each other up, though no of a and nothing changes. i think that's unfortunate because it's not us that would pay the price for that dramatically. grandchildren and in this country isn't sustainable. it's just not. the way we demonize each other and talk about each other is distracted. i think to our republic. words have consequences and the division we have this facilitate debate and conversation and

better policy, and we've got to have leaders that step forward and help make that happen so that we end up in a place where we still have a country that are founders envisioned. >> i think a lot of americans outside of south dakota probably first returning during the coronavirus pandemic. where were you and what were you involved in when you first heard of covid-19 and realized that you were dealing with a crisis? >> guest: well, i was running my state and making decisions. of course all of 2019 we were dealing with flooding in south dakota. we had been hit with a bomb cyclone that had caused a federal disaster in 63 of my 66 counties. so i had spent all of 2019 responding to emergencies, helping families and businesses and towns get patched back together, facilitating fema assistance. i was certain 2020 was going to be so much better and we would actually get back to just normal government operations. so when i started to hear about this virus at the end of 2019 i wondered if it would ever really

come to the united states, would it be what they were saying it was going to be. we got into january. i set up an emergency operation center starting to prepare for it doing research, assessing what we had for supplies and what we could do to address it. we got our first cases in march, march 10, and started to work our way through really what the state government could do to help facilitate keeping people healthy but also giving the flexibility to get through it together. we're in legislative session most of january and february, and we are continuing to fill in the legislators on this as will bring people to the table to figure out how to care for people. >> host: what were your thoughts when president trump at the very beginning of the pandemic announced or recommended to the country a two-week shutdown, two weeks? i think the message was two weeks to slow the spread. what were your initial thoughts on that recommendation? >> guest: i thought for our

state that we would try to do that. i recommended that people do that. did not mandate it but also a health experts were telling us that we can have over, around 300,000 people thousand people in our state die from this virus, and so i held press conferences, told and this is what we were hearing, this is what president trump was asking us to do and encouraged them to do so. and i think most of the people in the state listened. they went out for essentials and did what they needed to do, went to work but most of the time they tried to not gather and not do things that would happen and the didn't want to overwhelm our hospital system. but beyond that for me always the discussion was how long is this sustainable? and what my recommendations were going to be to people was going to be in reality how long can they continue to have this kind of action and conduct and exist,

how are we going to keep our kids educated and keep our businesses open. we in april announced that listen we are going to go back to normal. we kind of modified our activities in the state, not by mandating but by recommending, and that we were encouraging people to be smart, to still wash their hands and socially distance when possible and to not be in large gatherings, but the brew going to go back to normal because it was the right thing to do. >> host: you write a lot about your coronavirus strategy in "not my first rodeo: lessons from the heartland." when you decided to make the shift back to a normal footing, did you know that it was the right thing to do? was it simply a matter of balancing risks to the economy in addition to health risks? and how sure were you that it was going to turn out okay? i mean, i think in retrospect we can look at what happened in south dakota and what happened in some of the states that had more long-term, stringent

lockdowns and say that south dakota did okay although there's obviously a lot of debate around that. but at the time, and obviously as you've spoken about this over the past couple of years and as you write about in "not my first de it's clear you have no reet about the policy shift, but at the time you made the shift, how much angst did you have about it if any and did you know for a fact that it was going to work? >> guest: well, we never in south dakota talked about cases that much. what we focused on was hospital capacity. so all indications of what we recommended was focus on that and preparing surge hospitals and working with our national guard and with our administrators to make sure we could take care of people who should need care if they get sick. so that was really what kept things in perspective for us. we knew it was a virus. we knew people would catch it.

we needed to really focus on those who would get sick, what we could do to help them get through it and get healthy again. i knew it was the right thing to do at the time. i also knew it was going to get highly criticized, and it did by not just liberals but by conservatives and by my supporters and people that felt like they saw other governors doing different things and that i should just fall in line. but i did not know how we would be impacted but i also knew that what my authority was, what it wasn't, and that people in my state needed to have the ability to go forward and to take care of their families the way they saw fit, making the best decisions with the information that we could share with them. it was incredible what south dakota was doing. they were doing wonderful things to take care of the vulnerable population, and we knew we would get through it together. >> host: governor kristi noem of south dakota is the author. the book "not my first rodeo: lessons from the heartland." governor noem, thanks so much for joining us.

>> guest: thank you. appreciate it. enjoyed visiting with you.y financial institutions in her state. >> since first taking office our next speaker has been a dedicated defender of the right to keep and bear arms. as a candidate she promised to eliminate burdens on the right to care in south dakota. once elected she wasted no time

in making good on that promise. the very first piece of legislation she sighed as governor was constitutional carry. ladies and gentlemen, the 33rd governor of south dakota kristi noem. ♪ ♪ ♪ so wonderful to be with so many friends here today. are you excited? god bless america. >> charlton heston once said those dead old white guys who invented this country they knew what they were talking about. so often all we need to do to

inspire us for future fights is look at examples of the past year our founding fathers and a former leaders they charted a visionary path for our country. they created an exceptional experiment of freedom and a personal responsibility that would withstand sentries of storms and challenges. to keep what they built we must have people to act on valuesd character rather than our personal benefits. so much of who we are is determine how we were raised it now listen i didn't grew up in politics. on our farm and ranch we didn't talk about politics. we lived them. we had a gun cabinet in her living room. we had a shotgun hanging in the back window of every single pickup and tractor. r family vacations were even hunting trips. long before i ever ran for office i became a lifetime member of the nra.

my dad taught his life lessons picky todd is common sense and often those were taught during our hunting trips. as soon as we were old enough to ride a a horse he would take s hunting he would pack up or spec and sometimes 20 miles back into the wilderness to hunt elk. i didn't always do with back then but hunting trips gave me a lot of confidence. they help you become a problem solver. for instant i remember being only about nine or ten years old and we've had it all day miles and miles from camp in the high country in the big horn mountains when my dad turned to me and he said christie, hunt your way back to camp. i'm going to go read this ridge and i'll meet you there at dark. and he disappeared over the ridge now to a ten-year-old girl this was terrifying and as strange noises came and darkness fell, i had rely on my instincts and my horse to find my way back to our camp.

now years later mom shared with me that my dad had followed me at a safe distance all the way back to camp to make sure that i got there safe. now before you get all warm and fuzzy on him, i also want to tell you that he made bare noises the whole time he was following me. scratching trees and growling at me, so you know he made sure i live but he wanted me to be lived but he made me stronger. it also made me realize that i could conquer challenges that were put in front of me. it made me who i am today and that's the first female governor of the state of south dakota. now with me today i have my husband brian who has been with me every step of the way for the last 31 years now i want to thank you for all of his support but also for the amazing family that we have been blessed with. and speaking of family, i've got

three kids, two son-in-law was and did you know that i'm also a grandmother not just once but twice? have two beautiful grandchildren. for those of you with grandchildren there is no question as to why we get up every day and we fight. we get up every day and we fight for our values. little miss addie was almost too, and branch he was just a few much old, they have brought us so much joy. they brought his purpose. now addie who soon will need them, i want to reassure you should already has a shotgun and she already has a rifle. and she's got a little pony named sparkles, , too, so the gl is set up. there's a very famous quote that says those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. some would look at what's happening here in america today

and they would call the times unprecedented. they would say unforeseen. i would say the exact opposite. it all sound and it all looks and feels tragically familiar. we have been here before. a country that's arguing over policies, a public that's discouraged and dismayed by the lack of public discourse, violence in our streets and dinner schools, families grieving their children, and loved ones that were destroyed by a deranged maniac for no apparent reason. and the white house that is so hell-bent on grabbing power and control of your life they will do anything and not stop at absolutely nothing to take it away. they will even take away your last tool of defense, the second amendment is about deterrence. it's about ensuring the government respects the rights and the liberty of citizens. a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of a a

people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. those 27 words our freedoms last line of defense. the founders understood deeply that without an armed citizenry, authentic freedom could not and would not survive. and how did they know this? what were their circumstances? what did they know about human nature and the temptation to seize power? did they know how fragile freedom could be? what exactly were they drawing on? first, they were drawing on their own experience. the founders knew that the country would never have survived the revolutionary war if the colonists had not own their own weapons. the very first battles of the revolutionary war, the battles of lexington and concord, started when 800 expertly

trained british soldiers came to seize the weapons of the citizens. those colonists, those americans were untrained. they only had the personal weapons, and muskets and pistols to fight back. one an american named samuel whitmore 78. now think about that. in the 1770s the average life expectancy was less than 40. 40. as the british were retreating from the battle, sango hid behind a wall on his property. he ambushed the british all by himself. he shot one with his personal musket. he then shot two more with personal dueling pistols. all three of those british soldiers died from their wounds. for his heroism samuel was shot in the cheek, bayoneted six times and club repeatedly. the british left in there to die but he refused to. he got medical treatment and you lived another 18 years.

he lived to see american independence secured, to see the ratification of the constitution, to see george washington elected as a first president of the united states. and when the revolution war was over, samuel whitmore would go down in history as the oldest, perhaps even the bravest, colonial militiamen here that's how the american people want the revolutionary war. they continentals challenge the infantry of the british empire with the same firearms that they use to hunt squirrels and dear and to feed their families. then like samuel whitmore did not ask for permission from their government to own their own firearms. they didn't need it. god gave them that right. samuel defended his own personal property with his own personal weapon. he defended his own freedom. ladies and gentlemen, we don't have any idea what heart is.

we don't have an oppressive foreign government that's marching across our land and threatening to take everything from us. but we all have our part we need to play to defend our liberty. god gave you those liberties. god gave you the right to defend yourself and your family. our government recognizes that right but we do not have to ask permission to defend it. each of us needs to be as bold and desperate as santa whitmore. it doesn't matter if you're 18 or if you're 78. now what else did the founding generation understand? they knew human nature. writing in 1775 thomas paine laid it out clearly, with avarice in addition have a place in the heart of man, the week will become prey to the strong. the history of every age and nation establishes these truths. in fact, these little argument

when they prove themselves. today i admit the future looks uncertain. i would say clearly it can be found, the answer study the past and striving to do better. let's be teachable. the national rifle association has leaders who stand in the vortex for us today such as wayne and susan. we see them and the family walk through the fire for us and we're grateful for them. but we should also look at headlines from 25 years ago and see what we can learn for today. i want to reference a "washington post" article that was dated june 9, 1998. it summarizes where we stood then in this battle for freedom but it also reflects much of today's reality. the post reported the following, the national rifle association installed charlton heston as its new president today and loudly applauded his pledge to steer se organization back to the

political mainstream from which heston described as the fringe of american life. the choice of heston was seen in large part as a response to public relations problems for the nra. they had intensified recently because of several school shootings, and rising calls for stricter gun laws opposed by the group. now having the right messenger matters. you ask why i'm here today. why do i boldly support the nra? now i probably don't look like a traditional nra member. the media would have us believe that the nra is only made up of old white guys, and all you old white guys can be proud and raise your hands. but there's a lot of other people, a lot of diversity within the nra. well let me tell you something. i may be a mom and a grandma but i am the nra.

our daughters and our granddaughters every american is the nra. i did know i could even be a a hunter and till i saw my grandma was a hunter, and she was a pretty famous duck hunter. she was good. the post in that article went on to say the heston rose to power in the nra because of the need to soften the organizations public image. calling the school shootings a child issue, not again issue, heston reasserted the nra's long-standing position that violence grows from unraveling family values and week prosecutors and judges. he also added a new twist. he called on the white house to acknowledge many gun violations go on prosecuted for lack of resources. he called on the justice department to start prosecuting every federal gun law violation in one major city.

this he said would include attempts i felons to buy guns, which i rarely prosecuted except in combination with violent crimes. heston pulled no punches in his first day as president. referring to the second amendment he said those dead old white guys who invented this country, , they knew what they were talking about. now again this article is from 25 years ago. yet that conversation is so relevant today. what if prosecutors actually did their jobs instead of going on a political attack? what if the laws we had today were actually enforced? what if when tragedy happens families gathered together, they bowed their heads and they prayed for wisdom and discernment on how to heal hearts and minds, rather than to debate the methods used by those

in society who do do harm? our problems are not new. yet the threat is greater. every time our country stands in the path of danger it is always the patriots to first hear the call. even the most common man deserves uncommon freedom and we the patriots must be resolved to take action. why do the liberals and joe biden want our guns? because it will make it easier for them to infringe on all of our other rights. as a late great justice scalia wrote in the heller decision, history showed that the way tyrants had a limited a militia consisting of all the able-bodied men was not by banning the militia, but simply by taking away the peoples arms, enabling select militia or standing army to suppress political opponents. well, biden hasn't done that yet, but why is that? why haven't they achieved their goal? it's because of you, because

each of you and everyone of you is the nra. because we have successfully held off federal legislation that would infringe on our fundamental constitutional right to keep and bear arms. we have kept our rights from being infringed. in the last few years we've seen government overstepped its authority more than ever before. i have said china just export covid to the world. the exported communist lockdowns and seemingly the only way of stopping it. in fact, until south dakota refused and was the only state that refuse to issue any lockdowns -- [applause] i don't know if political leaders even realize that there was another option. i was shocked at how quickly people gave up their freedoms.

politicians close churches so people willingly gave up their freedom of religion. politicians said you couldn't gather in groups of people willingly give up the freedom of assembly. politicians work with social media companies to stifle dissent, so people willingly give up the freedom of speech. i think the american people could learn a thing or two from the nra. this is not a group of people who give up their god-given constitutional rights willingly. during the pandemic i spent a lot of time outdoors. sometimes you just needed a break from the fear and the paranoia that was going on on tv and in all the newspapers. my family would often go and relax at a cabin, go fishing, go pheasant hunting tier one did i made a video of me shooting is us and i don't know if you've seen it. i returned to the camera after shooting a bird and said, less

covid more hunting. and the liberals melted down on me. i was a little embarrassed by that video though because it took me three shots to drop that bird. obvious i was a little out of practice. i was making fun of myself. i needed more hunting. it wasn't my best day shooting and i shouldn't have been surprised when peter and all the liberal media came unglued and came after me. i couldn't believe, they couldn't believe that i would say less covid more hunting. i was kind of confused by it. did they want more covid or less hunting? but since then we have had less covid, so thank god. and we've had plenty of more hunting. in fact, south dakota has the best pheasant hunting in the world and if you haven't come to enjoy it with us, then you should. but south dakota's greatest asset is our people there are state motto is under god the people rule. and while enduring many challenges over the last several years we have worked together turn those challenges and opportunities. our state is stride as result of

embracing liberty and personal responsibility. we are setting the standard as the most, second amendment friendly state in the nation. the very first built the isight as governor guarantees constitutional carry for all law-abiding south dakotan. i signed legislation to block state and local governments from being able to use an emergency declaration as an excuse to infringe on second amendment rights. we strengthened our stand your ground law. we updated the definition of a loaded firearm to me that if a round is chambered making it easier to respond in situations when seconds count. and we made south dakota the first state in america to not charge a fee for any concealed carry permit. in fact, we now even pay for your federal background check.

it will not cost you a penny to exercise your second amendment rights in south dakota. while leadership in washington, d.c. fails to deliver meaningful solutions for the nation, our state will take action. ..

they are prepared to us and demonize but if they think that will stop me, they were paying attention during the pandemic. it's not just the media and big government. [cheering] not just media and big government now go after industries they disagree with loans and hold them to. none have been more impacted. i won't stand for it so i'd like

to ask wayne if he would come back and join me because i'm going to be signing executive order and keep and bear arms on financial institutions. [cheering] [applause] was an executive order to protect the god-given. my executive order effective immediately blocks state agency from contacting thanks and discriminate against firearms industries. thomas jefferson wrote a letter and talked about how committed

he was to freedom. i prefer freedom. do you have a microphone? you don't? i can put words in your mouth then. [laughter] >> on behalf of everyone should in this room, role, gut you. [cheering and applauding]

united secular borders also for. so the validity just there five of thank you. [applause] i'll wrap up your. [applause] as you leave here today, i want

you to remember that quote. i prefer dangerous freedom. we all leave here inspired by history and the blessings we enjoy in the burdens of responsibility. never give in. never. our freedom is in your hands. thank you. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

and detroit earlier this year. [cheering and applauding] >> good evening. you look fantastic. are you ready to make america great again? [cheering] my name is christy, governor of the great state of south dakota as you saw.

and on the platform right now. out of south dakota taking retaliation and they said they delivered the pain and anguish for those killed. and the commander installing or commander over the wing but the bomber wing has another commander itself. it was interesting because the

other one for your that you have sustained optimism and four points of advice in charge of bombers that would protect the future. achieve success on purpose which means the clarity of mission. number two was people are your everything. number three, resilience determines what will accomplish. make productive mistakes. an environment where people are willing to take a risk they know

they will take a risk to get ultimate success and when you make a mistake, learn from it. those are incredibly power full for us. a clarity of purpose, thought about governors and senators and all these government officials. [cheering] it is the people rule. we get our rights from god. while the whole world was losing its mind and falling apart and

the only state in the country. [cheering and applauding] defined what an essential business was is the ability or authority and also the only one in the entire country that didn't take your employment benefit. thank you for the? ability. from south dakota and law enforcement officers. if you want to be respected,

come to our state and the very first week 800 law enforcement officers say come to south dakota in one week be part of the families. so where are we today asked we are growing like crazy. thousands have moved to our state. all of our technical schools and universities railroads and more reserves than ever before. people have more money in their pockets.

we don't have a personal property tax. not the government's money. [cheering and applauding] the highest birth rate in the nation. [cheering] people who had a baby. in the only state in the country madness under the biden administration and national security and the issues going on at the economy. suicide rates are going down and the only state where overdoses are dropping.

in the decisions for them and their families. sustained optimism in the face of difficulty if you have someone to look to. it's not just wishful thinking. optimism with the plan and the attitude and the plan to take america back and make it great again strong again. so i've been bold and have done some things that have led the

way in every state to go forward took actions in other states that followed the first governor to send it to the national border. south dakota will be there right now. we have since deployed six different units to patrol and conduct valence and make this america as big as we possibly can. in this country. we have the strongest bill in the nation to protect support.

[cheering and applauding] and model a language because it was written correctly. [cheering and applauding] and i had someone asked me not to long ago, how do you make your decision ask i don't think the red wings are all that hard. they are pretty easy for me, i'm a decision-maker.

we all did it keep together. men and women but nobody really talks about it. there's not as many public and women as the women and that's okay. then i decided to run for governor and i found out it was hurting me, that i was a woman. to be the depot and convince them when they got elected, i remember standing in the rotunda of the inauguration ceremony. it started, i realized it was

being sworn in as the first female governor. the 100th anniversary in the right to vote. and 100 years later on the anniversary swearing in the first governor in the state of south dakota now sitting there for the first time started to get nervous. i started to think this is historic, a big deal. i better not screw this up. i took my oath when i was saying my oath and south dakota realized there was making

promises. the first was to uphold the constitution of south dakota in the second was to uphold the constitution of the united states of america. you do that, that's not hard. every decision has been constitutional. and what happens if i overstep my authority? that's what every decision has to start. should if you love this country and recognize the power is now the federal government, they are much more powerful and that is

to the people. that's where it comes from. so the got a very weak president in the white house right now. daily activities and he's in the white house and challenges take advantages around the world and israel is attacked deals get signed in the middle east and respected again. that's what happens when president trump comes back.

i'll give an example. i was in wisconsin recently, different groups asking to get engaged.

these are going to put up with it. [cheering] [cheering] and you are struggling to have optimism. going to remind you of something. a lot of you have more life ahead of you been life your. of the founding of our country when our founders decided to fight against the british army

in the declaration of independence, think about what they were doing. the strongest military in the entire world and doing it at a young age. john adams was 40. thomas jefferson was 33 and he wrote the declaration of independence the age of 33. james madison did five years old alexander hamilton was just 19. incredible, isn't it? they were that young they were taking on the strongest military in the world and they picked up personal hunting rifles and we

can do what we have to do. we can do it. the declaration of independence the muscle came together and they knew the risk they took it on anyway graded give us the greatest gift keep it and now it's time. we all in. years ago i had a lady walked up to me she said my name is sherry and she said you don't know me but i own an apparel store.

why do you only so pearls? said because they are the only pressers jim a living creature. all are created different ways but also the only ones while living creature. in order for the pearls to be created, the or stress to go through something hard, something that causes it pain is uncomfortable and challenging but it takes that hard challenging thing and turns it into something beautiful and precious. since that day, i've always worn pearls, some pearl to remind me. there can be challenges, we've seen a few attacks and they just keep coming and they are scared of me, i think that's the problem. but if you take hard things in your life and the challenges

facing this country, turn it into something precious. just like we were blessed and it's going to take work. sustained optimism while facing difficulties of something we can all be proud of. it is endangering our country. election about people who love america and trying to destroy america and that's what this is about. [cheering]

i know you are all in. people you haven't talked to in a long time. this is your mission and what you can do and we are not winning tonight. and we have to win hearts and minds, to. maybe they will talk to you because you offended them for get over it. have a conversation and talk to them they have to start asking questions about their lives and what we can do and state to state and how dramatically the

lives changed in the energy has gone up in grocery bills have gone. in the conversations you need to have. i can't believe they said that, it's a horrible thing. get over it. every day people well. you're the one to pick it up carry around with you. we are more blessed than 99% of the people in the world just because we woke up this morning and the united states of america.

and they continue to bless america thank you, everybody. [cheering and applauding]