Column: Palin and Carville spar over Trump, then a 10-year-old boy steals the show
Sarah Palin called it.
Just before leaving home for Politicon 2016, a gathering of mostly left-leaning political junkies in Pasadena, the former Alaska governor posted a note on Facebook saying she was heading for “the lion’s den” “to share some reality on behalf of Americans with righteous indignation.”
There was righteous indignation, all right.
But it was mostly directed at Palin, who gave a short speech promoting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at noon Sunday, before sitting down in conversation at 3 p.m. with cranky liberal commentator James Carville for a Q & A.
Palin has worked hard to keep her brand going — through books, TV shows, paid speeches — something that probably became more challenging in the last year after her contract with Fox News was not renewed. Her deft timing with an endorsement — she was among the first national political figures to fully embrace Trump — has kept her in the public imagination, where, judging from reactions on Sunday, she remains a figure of fascination, and division.
Palin had a coterie of vocal supporters in the audience, but she was intermittently hooted down by the far larger contingent of Palin skeptics as she and Carville jousted over gun control, immigration and, of course, Trump.
If there is any American politician alive who can truly understand the rise of Trump, it must be Palin. After her vice presidential bid failed, she became, post-2008, a symbol for disaffected Republicans who coalesced into the Tea Party movement, and are now entirely alienated from the GOP. Arguably, she conditioned the soil that allowed Trumpism to blossom.
“The people that ostensibly have run the Republican Party are at loggerheads with the people that actually vote,” Carville said. “How do you see this getting reconciled?”
“I am not going to worry too much about reconciliation because there are more of us than them,” replied Palin, “I’ve always had to buck my party…. You just want to believe that it is going to be the will of the people that will prevail.”
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Carville suggested there are two kinds of Republicans right now, those who believe the party is in a “demographic death cycle” and must appeal to minority voters to revive itself, and a second group that thinks anti-establishment candidates like Trump will be able to awaken a large enough contingent of “disengaged voters” that attracting minorities won’t matter.
“You are a member of Group 2,” Carville told Palin, who said in her earlier speech that Trump had “shattered turnout records like a golden wrecking ball.”
“Tell us how Donald Trump gets from here to 270 electoral votes in November.”
Palin couldn’t, exactly, but suggested that diversity among Trump voters is “significant” and invoked her husband’s heritage to illustrate her point. “My husband is Eskimo, so in fact he was here first, before the white man was…. It makes me even more irritated with those who would just want to slap a label on Republicans that they have any racist bone in their body.”
The crowd groaned.
Carville tried again. The GOP has lost the popular vote in the last five presidential elections, he noted. “Is that because they are insufficiently inclusive or insufficiently pure? Usually when a party loses five out of six, it says, ‘Let’s rethink this thing.’”
Palin suggested it’s the media’s fault. (“What about Fox?” someone yelled.)
“May I give you an example?” she said “Donald Trump has been in the spotlight for decades. He has been elevated and praised for his accomplishments, his diversity… he has friends in a minority demographic, black friends and colleagues… he has never been called a racist until he ran for president.”
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When Carville called for audience questions, there was practically a stampede to the microphone stand. The first question came from 10-year-old Adam Chernick, a Tarzana fifth-grader who had a press pass and a preternaturally adult manner. “You are a lot prettier than Tina Fey,” he told Palin.
Carville ushered the boy onstage to ask his question, I guess because he was just too cute. Who knew the most dangerous creature in the lion’s den would turn out to be Simba?
“You said you hate countries that don’t give women rights,” Adam began.
“I don’t think I ever said I hate countries,” Palin replied.
Adam pushed on: “Donald Trump said to Megyn Kelly, ‘You’ve got blood coming out of your wherever.’ How can you endorse someone who said something sexist like that?”
This, of course, brought the house down.
“If he were sexist,” Palin said, “I wouldn’t be endorsing him.”
I stopped Adam on his way out.
Was he happy with Palin’s response?
“No,” he said, “She didn’t even answer my question. I am not happy with Gov. Palin right now.”
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