Sarah Palin took on corporate politicos, the #NeverTrump movement and allegations of racism against presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in a 25-minute speech at Friday’s Western Conservative summit.
Friday is the first of three days of the seventh annual summit, held at the Colorado Convention Center and sponsored by the Centennial Institute and Colorado Christian University.
Palin spoke to the crowd at the summit Friday morning, in a 3,600-capacity room just over half full.
The Trump movement isn’t just about angry voters, Palin explained to the audience. The Republican establishment, which she called “profiles in pudding,” told Republicans to chill out. “Darm right voters are mad,” Palin said. “It’s righteous indignation!” But what the professional political class can’t handle is that the movement is more about anger, Palin said. It’s also about optimism and building up “the people’s agenda..but to [establishment Republicans] it’s a threat.”
Palin took on corporate-beholden politicians in the Republican party in her remarks. The Trump movement will take back the country from “professional politicians” who profit from open borders and moving jobs overseas, and profit from lobbyists who push reckless foreign policy, Palin said. She later praised Trump, whom she noted is a billionaire and “there’s nothing wrong with that.”
She also criticized those in the GOP who don’t back Trump, calling them Republicans Against Trump, “or RAT for short.” They’re angry because their guy didn’t win, she said. “HIllary [Clinton] can’t win without them,” she told the crowd, which booed at the mention of the Democratic presumptive nominee
Voters are looking for someone to build the country, Palin says. “They’re looking for a builder and we found a builder,” she said, meaning Donald Trump, whom she says “builds big.” She then asked, “What have his critics ever built?”
Trump isn’t running because “he’s bedazzled by the trappings of office,” she said. He’s on the “side of Joe Six-pack, where I come from.”
Palin then called out the media, whom she said had covered Trump for decades without any charges of racism. But the minute he runs for president, he’s called a racist, she said. “That’s the dirty side of the business.”
Palin also took on ISIS and immigrants who come to the United States and “oppose everything you stand for.” Regarding calls to limit or ban immigration, she said, “It’s not hate speech, it’s common sense.”
Watch a clip from Palin’s speech:
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons, Flickr
