Kristi Noem Can't Escape Her Eyebrow-Raising Driving Record

Kristi Noem may have a hard-line stance on recklessness on the road when it comes to immigrant drivers, but let's just say her own track record is far from squeaky clean. In fact, in 2010, she was trolled for her history of speeding, skipping stops, and driving without a license. If you're of the listen-to-music-while-reading variety, Charli XCX's "Speed Drive" is a nice pairing for Mar-a-Lago's very own SWAT Team Barbie. 

Noem was running for Congress in South Dakota when her many past fines made headlines. At the time, it was reported that over a 21-year period, she'd amassed a whopping 20 tickets for driving above the speed limit — but that wasn't all. She'd also run into trouble for not wearing a seat belt, disregarding stop signs, and driving without a license. On top of that, Noem had skipped her court dates just as she had those signs, and even ended up with two warrants for her arrest. Tut, tut, tut. Noem did address the fines during her campaign, telling Keloland News, "I'm not proud of my driving record." Granted, she also went on to deflect, saying, "I just feel disheartened we're spending time talking about my poor driving record when we could be talking about the economy and jobs." It's giving Bravo confessional.

Fast-forward — emphasis on fast — to Noem's comments on immigrant truck drivers, and it probably won't come as a surprise that the internet has had a field day with her past misdeeds. "With all those speeding tickets, you'd [have] thought she would've arrived to court early!" quipped one X, formerly Twitter, user. Others used the opportunity to poke fun at Noem's fake eyelashes. "To be fair I couldn't drive with curtains glued to my eyelids either," one chimed. Listen, we're all for pointing out Noem's makeup transformation and hypocrisy ... but yikes. 

While Kristi Noem's comments on immigrant truck drivers have reinvigorated interest in her own questionable track record, this isn't the first time she's been subjected to taunts about her stance on road safety. Au contraire, after her long list of traffic violations came to light in 2010, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a very damning (if not a touch juvenile) advertisement. 

The TV ad, which ran for two days before Noem requested it be taken down, featured dramatic music and flashes between the inside of a speeding car and children crossing a road, along with a yikes-worthy voice-over. "20 speeding tickets, once for going over 90 miles an hour. Kristi Noem. She failed to appear in court six times. Police issued two warrants for Noem's arrest ... Next time you send your kids to school, consider this: Noem ran a stop sign three times because she was in a hurry. One set of rules for her, another for us." The video ended with the cringey yet brutal tagline, "Kristi Noem — simply irresponsible."

Like we said, Noem formally requested that the ad be taken down. Her spokesperson also called Noem's opponent out, telling Politico, "Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin has certainly changed if she refuses to ask Washington Democrats to pull down this ad." Evidently, Noem's campaign thought that was a great starting point, because they then responded with an ad of their own, beginning with previous footage of Herseth Sandlin promising not to attack her opponents. "That was six years ago, but today, she's desperate and personally attacking her opponent," the voice-over lamented, before specifically referencing the first ad. That may be the case, but one thing's for sure — no one is forgetting about Noem's traffic violations any time soon.