On Sunday, Sarah Palin appeared on State of the Union with Jake Tapper to discuss politics and particularly Donald Trump, when she made a statement that set the political world buzzing with the same old attacks on the intelligence of the former Alaska governor that have been the usual for years in the media.
Host Jake Tapper was discussing Jeb Bush and the use of Spanish on the campaign trail, and Palin's reply was the trigger. Before the video and transcript, here is an example of some of the tweets.
@PhilipRucker it pretty much negates "the wisdom of crowds" that we are all wasting another minute thinking about that bag of uselessness.
— IndieEars (@seamonkey237) September 6, 2015
@PhilipRucker Most people view education & knowledge as assets, but some are just assets minus the "t".
— Jo Lown (@JLownLaw) September 6, 2015
Not the Onion #SarahPalin calls on immigrants to #SpeakAmerican http://t.co/5sYGWMOG6c #Speechless
— Gretchen (@GretchensTravel) September 6, 2015
However, as with any purported Republican gaffe, one really must check the record. Here is the much maligned segment:
"I think that it's a benefit of Jeb Bush to be able to be so fluent in Spanish because we have a large and wonderful Hispanic population that you know is helping to build America and that's good and that's a great relationship and connection that he has with them through his wife and through his family connections. On the other hand, you know, I think we can send a message and say, 'you want to be in America, A) you’d better be here legally or you’re out of here, B) when you’re here, let’s speak American. I mean that's, let's speak English, and that's a kind of a unifying aspect of a nation is the language that is understood by all."
Palin does also go on to mention taking Spanish and French. She jokingly states that she probably shouldn't have taken both at the same time because she got them mixed up. That's called a humorous anecdote and people use them frequently.
The bottom line is, despite the thousands of Tweets painting her as some moron who thinks our language is American and who can't distinguish between Spanish and French, Gov. Palin merely stated in a friendly, folksy, normal way that having English as a "unifying aspect" of the American culture is not a terrible thing, while acknowledging also that it's very nice to speak Spanish and good for Bush.
Oh the horror!!!
If you're looking for the truly outrageous statement, how about the fact that Jeb Bush said that you don't value "tolerance" if you think candidates should speak English on the campaign?
