Daily Beast: “At least Nero fiddled in Rome the whole time it burned. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem chose to absent herself for a two-day trip to Washington, D.C., this week while the per capita stats placed her state No. 1 in the nation for new COVID-19 deaths and No. 2 for new infections. Between Nov. 16 and 17, she met with a series of Trump Cabinet members who will soon be out of a job and unable to do anything for South Dakota, even if they were so inclined. One thing they could do was provide Noem an opportunity for Noem to post pictures of her meeting with them when she could have been back home addressing a crisis.”

“The main event of her visit was an invitation from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to address the new Republican members of Congress in a hall at the Capitol. She was, of course, maskless, as were the others in attendance, though they were seated at an approximation of social distancing. ‘To the next generation of Republicans in Congress, remember where you came from,’ tweeted this one-time congresswoman, now a governor who had left hospitals crowded with the sick and dying to travel 5,750 miles from her state’s capital to tweet about not forgetting the folks back home. She also tweeted a photo of her and her husband, Bryon Noem, chilling with McCarthy in his office. ‘Thanks @GOPLeader for inviting me to speak to the new members and for hanging out with me and Bryon!’ she tweeted.”