Todd Palin, husband of 2008 GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, tells Breitbart News that Chris Kyle was “an unbelievable man” who “fought for freedom in this country.” Kyle had appeared alongside Todd Palin on the reality TV show Stars Earn Stripes, where several celebrities competed in military training competitions to raise funds for charities that help American troops.
Kyle also served as the personal bodyguard for Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, at many points throughout her political career, including at the screening of Breitbart News Network Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon’s film about her political rise: “The Undefeated.”
“Meeting Chris, when he was doing Sarah’s security, he was just completely professional—an expert in his business,” Todd Palin said in an exclusive phone interview.
And then it was an honor for me and others to participate in Stars Earn Stripes with Chris and others in the military. You can have a conversation with somebody but until you’re side-by-side in the trenches with somebody, then you really know somebody. These guys, being a sniper, being out ahead of his unit and saving lives, Chris was just a good man, an expert in his field and he was one heck of a teacher.
Palin explained that Kyle taught actor Dean Cain how to shoot for the reality show.
He and Dean Cain were partnered up in Stars Earn Stripes and he turned Dean into a sharpshooter—and Dean was an excellent student. I can’t say how much Chris was a great instructor, along with all the other military ops. And that just goes to show you with their training and dedication and discipline. From spending time with him on the show and out on the trail, and at different functions, was just a true honor and I just can’t say enough about our troops. It’s just an honor to spend time with them and to stand shoulder to shoulder with them and learn just a little bit about what they were trained to do and what some of the missions were. It was unbelievable.
Palin says that military service teaches young men and women, including his son Track who enlisted and went through boot camp in 2007 at Fort Benning in Georgia, values that are important to the nation.
As father and mother, Sarah and I witnessed our son [Track] go through boot camp. It’s just an unbelievable process. You have an 18-year-old go down to boot camp and then you go down there a few months later when they graduate from boot camp and they’re just mentally strong, physically strong and have all the respect in the world for their drill sergeant because their drill sergeant is right next to you climbing up that mountain or running the five miles. But it just shows years of training, dedication and protecting freedom and liberty. That’s the motto of our military.
Palin also praised the other celebrities who participated in the reality show Stars Earn Stripes — where Kyle and other military operators taught them how to engage in various military exercises.
But if you look back at the celebrities that participated in Stars Earn Stripes, Picabo Streets—a gold medalist—Nick Lachey, Laila Ali, Terry Crews, Dean Cain, Dolvett Quince, Eve [Torres]—you know, for those guys to roll up their sleeves and risk their life to raise money for military based charities and it was hats off to them for what they did to participate and compete to raise money for those charities,” Palin said. “We were all just honored to be side-by-side with all of our military ops.
During the show, according to a blog post from the Palin’s oldest daughter Bristol on Patheos, Kyle praised Todd Palin as being tough.
“He’s Rambo, he’s straight up Rambo,” Kyle said of Todd Palin. “Next time I’m in a war, I want Todd Palin on my side.”
“He was the first one on the boat, the first one under the wire, and about the time the rest of the guys were getting through, he already had the crate,” Kyle added about Todd Palin. “You don’t need anyone else. Forget Chuck Norris, send in Todd Palin.”
Kyle is considered the U.S. military’s most lethal sniper in history. He had 160 confirmed kills out of 255 probable kills. A Navy SEAL, Kyle served four tours in the Iraq war and won numerous medals—including two Silver Stars, five Bronze stars, a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, and two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals. After his honorable discharge from the U.S. military in 2009, Kyle wrote his bestselling autobiography “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History,” published in 2012.
Kyle was killed, along with his friend Chad Littlefield, at a gun range near Chalk Mountain, Texas, on Feb. 2, 2013, by a man who is awaiting trial on murder charges.
When he was killed, the Palins—Sarah and Todd—issued a joint statement on Facebook expressing their thoughts and prayers for Kyle.
“Todd and I first met Chris in Pella, Iowa, when he helped out with security for the premiere of the film ‘The Undefeated,’” the Palins wrote to the governor’s millions of Facebook followers on Feb. 2, 2013, the day Kyle was killed. “And later we became friends with Chris when he was on ‘Stars Earn Stripes’ with Todd. Chris was a wonderful man, a good friend, and a true American hero who loved our country and served honorably. He was loved and admired by so many, and he will never be forgotten.”
She and Todd attended Kyle’s funeral in Dallas on Feb. 11, 2013, where Sarah Palin wrote via Facebook that she hoped President Barack Obama “pays his respects in some gesture of condolence for their comrade in arms who sacrificed so much to keep him and all of us safe.” The Palins have stood up for Kyle’s family, too. Sarah Palin called former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura a “jackass” and accused him of engaging in “shaking down” Kyle’s wife Taya Renae Kyle when Ventura continued a $2 million defamation against her after Chris’s death. Ventura won that suit.
Kyle’s autobiography was since adapted into a feature film starring actor Bradley Cooper as Kyle and actress Sienna Miller as Kyle’s wife. The film is directed by Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood, and has been a massive success at the box office—despite recent attacks from liberals in Hollywood like actor Seth Rogen and documentarian Michael Moore.
“American Sniper kind of reminds me of the movie that’s showing in the third act of Inglorious Basterds,” Rogen Tweeted, which USA Today noted means Rogen is “essentially comparing Eastwood’s film to Nazi propaganda.”
Rogen later somewhat walked back his original comments in a follow-up Tweet, writing: “I just said something ‘kinda reminded’ me of something else. I actually liked American Sniper. It just reminded me of the Tarantino scene.”
Meanwhile, Moore was much more direct with his attacks on the film.
“My uncle killed by sniper in WW2,” Moore Tweeted. “We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren’t heroes. And invaders r worse.”
Moore later claimed he wasn’t criticizing Kyle, or the film American Sniper, in a lengthy Facebook post in which he wrote that he liked much of the film.
So here’s what I think about “American Sniper”: Awesome performance from Bradley Cooper. One of the best of the year. Great editing. Costumes, hair, makeup superb! Oh… and too bad Clint (Eastwood) gets Vietnam and Iraq confused in his storytelling. And that he has his characters calling Iraqis “savages” throughout the film. But there is also anti-war sentiment expressed in the movie. And there’s a touching ending as the main character is remembered after being gunned down by a fellow American vet with PTSD who was given a gun at a gun range back home in Texas — and then used it to kill the man who called himself the “America Sniper.”
Todd Palin ripped Hollywood liberals who attacked Kyle and American Sniper. He said they’re engaging in such behavior because they aren’t even close to as successful in the business of Hollywood as figures like Eastwood and Cooper.
They spend their lifetimes trying to have a successful movie like the American Sniper so they’re jealous of the success of the American Sniper. So, of course, there’s a double standard where they say ‘do as I say, not as I do’ and when you look at the last few years in America, Chris Kyle is a true American hero. People are just craving for that and that’s why the movie is such a success. He’s an American hero and that’s why people are going to continue to pack the theaters to see the show and it’s going to break all kinds of records. My hat’s off to Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper—they did an outstanding job.
According to Good Morning America, American Sniper has already “shattered” box office records in its opening week.
Palin added that a silver lining in the attacks on the film by the Hollywood liberals is that they’re now exposed to all of America for what they really are.
Their true colors definitely show. They like to bring that attention to themselves. That’s the motivation. It’s this group mentality of “I’m going to slam this guy and I’m going to get rewarded by my friends for standing up and making a statement” but heartland America can see through it all. And that’s why American Sniper is a huge success.
In an interview with People Magazine, Sarah Palin joined her husband Todd in touting Kyle’s military career, calling him a “hero” and a truly “humble guy.”
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