Sarah Palin has a way with words.
Click here for more political coverage from News 3
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorses Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Tuesday, January 19, 2016 at an Iowa campaign stop.
Since announcing her support for Trump in January, she has routinely dazzled and dumbfounded observers at rallies and in interviews. Here are the most Palin moments of Palin’s last few months.
‘Suck it up, cupcake!’
“Do you know how thoroughly distrusted you are, mainstream media?” she asked during the Trump rally in San Diego, looking toward the “sheep in the media.”
“Well, he is now, though, he is we the people’s nominee,” she continued, before dropping the hammer: “So, suck it up, cupcake!”
‘Like a golden wrecking ball’
In the same speech, Palin praised Trump for “roaring into this primary and (blowing) the lid off the corrupted and corroded machine.”
“He was like a golden wrecking ball!” she continued, launching countless nickname jokes and suggestions. “He wrecked what needed to be wrecked.”
‘Green and gold until I’m dead and cold’
Campaigning for Trump in Wisconsin — one of the few speed bumps in Trump’s roll to the nomination — Palin opened her April 1 speech Milwaukee speech with: “Getting off the airplane today as I’m walking through the airport, and seeing all the green and gold and the green and gold until I’m dead and cold, paraphernalia everywhere.”
The NFL’s Green Bay Packers, who play about 120 miles north of Milwaukee, wear green and gold.
‘Teddy bears and soccer balls’
“What the heck are you thinking, candidates?” she asked later in her Wisconsin remarks. “What are you thinking when you’re going ahead and you’re actually asking for more immigrants, even illegal immigrants, welcoming them in, even inducing and seducing them with gift baskets, ‘Come on over the border and here’s a gift basket of teddy bears and soccer balls.’ What are you thinking?”
The audience apparently did not think much of the 18-minute speech, which was met mostly with silence.
‘No more pussyfooting around!’
Palin endorsed Trump on January 19 in Iowa.
“Only one candidate’s record of success proves he is the master of the ‘art of the deal,'” she said. “He is perfectly positioned to let you make America great again. Are you ready for that, Iowa?”
Iowans, as it turned out, were not. Republican caucus-goers voted for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Still, the next line was a big winner.
“No more pussyfooting around!” she declared. “Our troops deserve the best. You deserve the best!”
‘Right winging, bitter clinging’
Iowa marked Palin’s big return to the campaign game and she stayed true to form. Here was her message to establishment Republicans questioning Trump’s bona fides:
“Now they’re concerned about his ideological purity? Give me a break! Who are they to say that? Oh, tell somebody like Phyllis Schlafly, she is the Republican, conservative movement icon and hero and a Trump supporter. Tell her she’s not conservative. How about the rest of us? Right winging, bitter clinging, proud clingers of our guns, our God, and our religion, and our Constitution. Tell us that we’re not red enough? Yeah, coming from the establishment. Right.”
Palin’s taste for rhyming didn’t go unnoticed. It found its way into a neat musical mash-up.
‘Paul Ryan is soon to be ‘Cantored”
When House Speaker Paul Ryan, among the most powerful elected Republicans, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on May 5 he was “just not ready” to support Trump, Palin bit back and announced plans to back Ryan’s primary opponent in Wisconsin.
“I think Paul Ryan is soon to be ‘Cantored,’ as in Eric Cantor,” she said in an interview with Tapper a few days later, referencing the ousted former GOP majority leader. “(Ryan’s) political career is over but for a miracle because he has so disrespected the will of the people, and as the leader of the GOP, the convention, certainly he is to remain neutral, and for him to already come out and say who he will not support is not a wise decision of his.”
Despite Palin’s backing, Ryan is expected to flick off his challenger, Paul Nehlen, by a heavy margin.
‘Bill Nye is as much a scientist as I am’
Palin questioned Nye’s expert credentials during a visit to Washington for the premiere of a film called “Climate Hustle,” which attempts to throw doubt on climate science and global warming.
“He’s a kids’ show actor,” Palin said, “he’s not a scientist.”
(In case you’re wondering, FactCheck.org looked into this one and determined that, yes, Nye is in fact a scientist.)
‘Who am I to question that?’
Palin followed up her jab at Nye by speaking with The Guardian. In their chat, she blamed peer pressure for promoting climate concerns.
“Too many people believe that, ‘Oh, well, I guess if 97% of all scientists believe that man’s activities are creating changes in the weather, who am I to question that?'”
The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee also took issue with the stat — saying it was exaggerated — but comedian Jimmy Kimmel got the last laugh, playing the clip back later and responding, “Exactly. Who are you to question that?”
