Former Republican President Donald Trump gave former Alaska Republican Governor Sarah Palin his official endorsement in her bid for Congress, saying he supports her.
Why?
Simply because she backed his run for President in 2016.
Trump said Palin—who rose to prominence after the GOP chose her as running mate for the late Arizona Republican Senator John McCain in the 2008 election—"shocked many when she endorsed me very early in 2016, and we won big."
"Now it's my turn!" he declared, adding that Palin "has been a champion for Alaska values, Alaska energy, Alaska jobs, and the great people of Alaska."
Trump did not mention the late McCain, who was a bitter political rival, though he called Palin an "America First fighter" and said she "lifted the McCain presidential campaign out of the dumps." He did claim the campaign hosted "some very evil, stupid and jealous people" who were "out to destroy her."
You can read Trump's complete statement below.
Palin seeks to win the seat previously held by Representative Don Young, who held the seat for almost 50 years before he died last month.
Trump's endorsement–given for the most Trumpian of reasons–exposed both him and Palin to significant criticism.
Last month, 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 frontier.
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 that former President Barack Obama is a natural-born U.S. citizen, thus implying that he is ineligible to be President, and which Trump himself endorsed.
