Kristi Noem Says She is Victim of ‘Conservative Cancel Culture’ and ‘Knee-Jerk Headlines’

South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem released a statement Wednesday claiming to be a victim of “conservative cancel culture,” pushing back against those who believe she is bowing to the NCAA regarding biological men in woman’s sports.

“The bill picked a fight with the NCAA – a fight that renowned conservative legal experts advise Governor Noem that she will lose,” Noem’s team’s statement read regarding a bill she sent back to the legislature that would have banned transgendered biological men from participating in women’s sports.

“If conservative media would take 5 seconds to read past the knee-jerk headlines and actually understand Governor Noem’s position, they’d come to a very different realization,” the statement concluded.

Criticism of Noem has come from many angles, including Terry Schilling, president of  D.C.-based think tank American Principles Project, who said, “Kristi Noem had an opportunity to show real leadership on behalf of girl athletes, both in her state and nationwide.”

“All she had to do was put her signature on a bill which convincingly passed the state legislature and which polling has shown is an incredibly popular issue in South Dakota,” Schilling stated.

Here’s our statement in response to @GovKristiNoem’s disappointing veto of South Dakota’s bill to protect women’s sports. pic.twitter.com/TQW52mXgEU

— American Principles (@approject) March 19, 2021

Matt Walsh, a conservative commentator, said Noem’s hesitancy was the “most Republican line of reasoning I’ve ever heard.” Adding he is “Sick of it” and “Nauseated by it.”

Kristi Noem says she doesn’t want to ban males from women’s sports at the college level because it might make the NCAA mad and they might “punish us.” That is the most Republican line of reasoning I’ve ever heard. Sick of it. Nauseated by it.

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) March 22, 2021

Margot Cleveland, a senior contributor at the Federalist, called Noem’s changes “beyond misleading.”

Cleveland called into question “Noem’s reasoning about eliminating the section that would have required students to confirm their age and biological sex each year, along with confirmation they had not taken performance-enhancing drugs, including anabolic steroids, within the previous year,” Susan Berry at Breitbart News reported.

Noem appeared in an interview Monday with Tucker Carlson on Fox News to highlight what she called a bill that “is a trial lawyer’s dream.”

“This bill would only allow the NCAA to bully South Dakota, and it would actually prevent women from being able to participate in collegiate sports,” Noem explained.

“So what I’ve done is I’ve asked the legislature, through a style and form revision, it is to ask them to change the bill,” she added.