Tiffany Cross tore into South Dakota's MAGAt Gov. Kristi Noem for turning her state's National Guard into mercenaries, to serve her goal of becoming 2024's GOP nominee for president.

First, Cross reminded us of how desperate Noem is for the Trump base's approval. Desperate, and deadly, that is.

"You guys remember Kristi Noem, right? The Republican governor and Trump acolyte so thirsty for MAGA approval that she literally sacrificed lives in her state by presenting COVID-19 as a Democratic plot to ruin the white man's nation?" she began. "So after declaring South Dakota open for business at the height of the pandemic, and defiantly making masks optional, the state's death rate reached a global high."

Then Cross turned to Noem's latest disgusting, authoritarian move.

"This week she announced that she would deploy up to 50 of the state's Guard members to Texas, where they will help secure the border between the United States and Mexico against, what exactly? Yes, desperate mothers and children and families seeking asylum." Cross highlighted the particularly Erik Princian twist, though. "But unlike other Republican governors who have done this exact same thing, Noem found Willis Johnson, a Tennessee billionaire, to pay for it."

How does that work, exactly? Does the billionaire's money go into the state's coffers? Noem's pockets? Slush fund for the next election? Cross has questions, too, including one that portends an even greater democratic threat.

"So let's set aside the ethical questions of is this money laundering, because it sure sounds like it, or is this legal, it shouldn't be, or what happens when billionaires start funding the National Guard to stop things like voting rights marches or Black Lives Matter protests?" she asks.

I'm not sure we should set them aside, but I am in HEAVY favor of finding answers to Cross' next set of questions.

"The question I have for this Phyllis Schlafly reject is the same question by Harold Frazier, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe when he asked for the state's assistance in April of 2020, when COVID was running rampant through the state, to help establish medical facilities. Why did the governor not deploy soldiers at his request, but is willing to send the guard to do the work of private donors over 1,000 miles away?"

Hm. Great question. Could it be that protecting the Indigenous from COVID might mean acknowledging that COVID is a danger? Or that being responsive to the needs of people whose land you stole might imply you actually have a responsibility to do right by them?

Then she shredded Noem's hypocrisy in daring to get her hackles raised over the tribe protecting their own people by securing their own borders.

"When the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe worked to protect their borders, the feckless fumbler threatened them with lawsuits, and complained about their strict border control to the federal government. South Dakota, just like the rest of the country, the Native Americans were the state's first inhabitants....So imagine if Native Americans had better border patrol centuries ago. Or if the Gold Coast of Ghana had border patrol centuries ago."

Cross then quoted Jay-Z to make the point that Noem, like so many aggrieved racist white people, terrified that they're fast becoming the demographic minority, should be grateful that Black and brown people simply want equality, not revenge. But of course, Noem's capacity for nuance is about as broad as the space between her nostrils.

The MSNBC host ended by letting everyone know what this fascist move is really about.

"What Kristi lacks in intelligence she more than makes up for in ambition. This is a stunt that's more about securing a photo op than the border. So she's essentially thirst-trapping on the 'Gram, hoping Fox will like her flex for a possible presidential run in 2024. The anti-marijuana Republican once said she never met someone who got smarter from smoking pot. I mean, maybe, but, damn, she sure proves one can definitely get dumber and get more cruel from gulping down that MAGA milk."

She may be dumb, but she wouldn't be the first Republican to win an election promising to use whatever means necessary to shoot women and children at the border.