Watch Sarah Palin’s Gushing Interview With Donald Trump
Two of the Republican Party’s more unique, popular and endlessly quotable personalities sat down for an interview Friday night as former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin chatted with current GOP frontrunner Donald Trump on a variety of topics including the economy, the media and “Gotcha!” questions. Praising Trump as the “anti-status quo” candidate, Palin said of the mogul on the One America News Network, “Everything about Donald Trump‘s campaign, it’s avant-garde, and he’s crushing it in the polls.”
Surprisingly for a conversation between “The Donald” and “The Hockey Mom,” the interview itself was rather banal, slightly out-of-focus and light on the big boasts and unfiltered talk that have endeared Trump to his supporters. (Take for instance earlier in the day, when Trump called former New York congressman Anthony Weiner a “perv” while attempting to disparage Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin.) The Palin-Trump chat featured more back-patting and compliments than actual policy talk, but the pair did manage to squeeze in the topics of unemployment, preserving the middle class and “fixing our screwed-up tax code.”
However, things heated up a little when the subject of the media came up. “You’re seeing some idiots in the press,” Palin said, referring both to Trump’s feud with Univision anchor Jorge Ramos as well as her perception that the news networks are twisting Trump’s words for their own gain. Palin also addressed the “Gotcha!” questions – inquiries by the media made in an effort to make a candidate look foolish – that she claimed dogged her while serving as John McCain’s running mate in 2008.
In the case of Trump, he was quizzed about his favorite Bible verse. “I love the Bible and I’m a Protestant, Presbyterian, and they were hitting me with different questions one after another, and look, I don’t know if it’s ‘Gotcha!’ but it probably is, and then they said ‘What’s your favorite verse,’ and that’s a personal thing. I don’t like giving that out to people you hardly know,” Trump said.
“Interestingly, in the last poll, I won with everything, including the Evangelicals. Big with the Evangelicals. Big with the Tea Party. We have tremendous poll numbers with Tea Party and conservatives. But we also won with the moderates, with the poor, with the rich. We won on every category,” Trump said. “They want to see America be great again. ”
In July, Trump proclaimed that he would “love” to involve Palin in his administration if elected president. “I’d love that, because she really is somebody who knows what’s happening and she’s a special person. She’s really a special person and I think people know that,” Trump said Palin. “I still have people saying, ‘Get Sarah’s support! Get Sarah’s support!’ No matter where I go, everybody loves her. Like me, she’s got people that don’t exactly love us and we understand who they are and sort of forget about that, but she has a tremendously loyal group of people out there for her.”
Trump’s unabashed admiration of Palin has even sparked rumors that the mogul might select the former Alaska governor as his 2016 running mate if he’s chosen to represent the Republican Party. Trump wrapped up his One America News Network appearance by telling Palin, “You are a terrific person and it’s great to be with you.”