Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was criticized after declaring members of Congress should be holding "huge bada** rallies on the Capitol steps," "press conferences" and "fireside chats" on a regular basis to inform the American public about what's "going on."
Her response was suitably Trumpian, bringing to mind former Republican President Donald Trump's tendency to hold boisterous, campaign styles rallies to energize his supporters. It gave a preview of what to expect should she win a congressional race and become a member of the House of Representatives in Alaska's upcoming election.
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Palin said:
"Not only that but we can't put up with all the corrupt acts that put our country in the position that we're in, like the 30,000 emails that were erased, and that was 'okay'."
"Hillary did that—Bengazi. Oh my gosh, these things were... we're going to investigate. Congress should be having these bada** huge rallies on the steps of the Capitol."
"And it should be Congressmen... they have the platform, they should be having these press conferences, they should be having fireside chats, they should be doing everything they can to get the message to the public to know what's going on."
Palin brought up Benghazi and email investigations, which took place and cleared Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of any criminal wrongdoing.
As Secretary of State, Clinton responded to the Arab Spring by advocating military intervention in Libya but was harshly criticized by Republicans for the failure to prevent the 2012 Benghazi attack. However embassy security staff was cut by Republicans prior to the attack.
Her use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State was the subject of intense scrutiny. The emails were retrieved, not deleted as Republican rhetoric claims. No charges were filed against Clinton as it was deemed a procedural issue and not criminal. Multiple members of the Trump administration were cited for using private servers, unsecured electronic devices and public apps for official White House communication.
The Clinto email controversy was the single most covered topic during the 2016 presidential election.
Palin seeks to win the seat previously held by Representative Don Young, who held the seat for almost 50 years before he died in March.
Earlier this year, Palin hinted she would run for Congress to fight "namby pamby wussy p*ssy stuff," a turn of phrase that earned her widespread ridicule.
Palin did not elaborate on what she meant by "namby pamby wussy p*ssy stuff" but her remarks appeared to be a slight against Democrats, whom Republicans have often accused of spending more time focusing on identity politics than on matters regarding the economy or immigration, particularly at the nation's southern border.
Palin has been said to have paved the way for Trump's candidacy because she, relatively unknown outside of Alaska until McCain plucked her from obscurity, embraced the reactionary politics that gave rise to the Tea Party movement, a conservative populist social and political movement that called for lower taxes and for a reduction of the national debt and federal budget deficit.
The Tea Party has been credited with fracturing the Republican Party as a whole, particularly as the movement largely abandoned matters of economic policy and came to be defined by bigotry, such as the belief in "birtherism" which doubts or denies former Democratic President Barack Obama is a natural-born U.S. citizen, implying he is ineligible to be President.
Donald Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump both pushed birtherism before, during and after Obama's presidency.
