Kacey Musgraves fires back at Kristi Noem with brutal dog-shooting reference
Kacey Musgraves fires back at Kristi Noem with brutal dog-shooting reference after Ella Langley comparison. (Getty Images)
Kacey Musgraves has taken aim and fired a cutting clapback at Kristi Noem, after Noem said she’d pick country singer Ella Langley over her.
The exchanged started after Musgraves welcomed Democratic Senate nominee for Texas, James Talarico to one of her shows on her tour.
After Talarico took to Facebook to thank Musgraves for having him, Noem took the post to X on 12 October to say: “I’ll take @ellalangleymsic over Kacey Musgraves any day. And if I’m choosin’ Texas, I’ll take Ken Paxton over James Talarico.”
In response, Musgraves posted a one-liner to Noem, responding: “I don’t think you have a dog in this fight but if you did you would have shot it.”
Langley has since removed the tag from Noem’s post on X.
Why does the clapback reference shooting a dog?
Musgraves’ final line references Noem’s account of shooting and killing her own dog named Cricket in her book, ‘No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward’ in 2024.
In the excerpt, Noem wrote that Cricket had proved herself “untrainable”, “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”. She also described the dog as “aggressive”, adding: “I realised I had to put her down.”
Noem is a Republican politician who served as governor of South Dakota from 2019 to 2025 and currently serves as the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas. Last month, she made headlines after filing for divorce from her husband, Bryon Noem, citing “irreconcilable differences”, after images alleged to involve a crossdressing fetish were leaked to the press.
