MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview here aboard the Great America Alliance bus that the movement that elected President Donald Trump is now firmly behind Judge Roy Moore here in Alabama.
Palin’s exclusive interview came on Thursday evening as she endorsed Judge Moore against establishment-backed Luther Strange in the GOP primary runoff for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday here in Alabama. She was speaking at a rally for Moore after the only debate between the two candidates, a Lincoln-Douglass style debate down the street here in Montgomery.
The focus of the interview began by zoning in on the movement that now President Trump captured during the course of the 2016 presidential election, an election where Palin was one of his earliest and highest profile supporters.
“This movement has been rumbling underground for so many years,” Palin told Breitbart News. “We finally, during the last presidential election, had a spokesperson for what it was we had been saying and thinking and that was ‘put America first.’ Put America first. A lot of that movement, for Republicans, has to do with the battle against the Republican Party hierarchy that seems more concerns about party politics and positions—their own titles—versus what’s best for their own constituents. I’ve been fighting that since I was 18 years old and first registered to vote against the Republican Party in my own state, bless their hearts, running against them when they were not believing in smaller, smarter government and they weren’t exercising Reaganomics. Running against them, winning, and it’s helpful to see it wasn’t just little old Wasilla, Alaska, that had those types of battles. Those battles have been going on all across this country, and finally enough people stood up and said ‘enough is enough’ and that’s the movement. It’s all good, it’s all positive. It’s all energetic.”
In the case of this race, Palin said it was an easy decision to endorse Moore over Strange. Strange has been caught up in a number of controversies as it has been discovered he lobbied for a firm that backed a controversial trade agreement that then shipped Alabama jobs to Central America, has an investment stake in a scandalous visa-for-sale firm that allows wealthy foreigners to buy their way into America, and has been backed by millions of dollars of dark money flowing into Alabama from establishment sources back in Washington, D.C.
“It’s a wee bit too simple, this one is,” Palin told Breitbart News. “It’s just—ironically—clear, cut, and dry. When people realize the background of one candidate, as opposed to the background of another candidate, it’s just abundantly clear who it will be who will have the people’s back, who will fulfill the promises, and put the people first.”
Palin, during her speech at the rally, noted that in 2016 all Americans defeated the swamp in Washington, D.C., by electing Trump president, but that the swamp is now trying to “hijack” Trump’s presidency. When asked to explain that remark, Palin reference remarks that then White House chief strategist now again Breitbart News executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon made at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) earlier this year when he noted that the political class was not just going to give up now that Trump won.
“It’s like Steve Bannon has said: Did anybody think they were going to give up power easily and gently? No. It’s a battle,” Palin said. “It’s a battle for the future of this country. No, the swamp creatures don’t want the swamp drained. That is what we voted for and our duly elected president is sent there to represent that way of thinking. So, no, they’re not going to give up their power easily and gently and just go on their merry way.”
Palin added that she believes that Judge Moore is a “happy warrior,” a term that has been used to describe conservative luminaries like Andrew Breitbart and others who happily fight for the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do. With “happy warriors” like Moore in the U.S. Senate she added, America can win this war against the political class and corruption in the Washington swamp.
“We can [win this war],” Palin said. “This is what we need, the happy warriors who are in it for the right reason. They’re in it for a reason, not just a season and not just a business for them. They have a servant’s heart that we need in our government. So, yeah, we certainly can. I’ve followed Judge Moore’s career for many years, as I said, and the ups and downs and the battles that he’s had inside and outside of the party and always standing up for what he believes is right. Some of the things he’s done, I’ve just gotten a kick out of, and I think they need some of that in Washington—like when he showed up to vote riding a horse, I thought we’d probably do the same thing. He’s a good man and he’s got great character. Yes, this is what we need. We don’t need the lobbyist mentality in the Senate, because that lobbyist mentality has too often proven to the people that special interests that will enrich that lobbyist will come before the people’s interest. We can’t afford any more of that. That has led us to the $20 trillion debt that we’re in. That has led us to the government growth and overreach that we see. So, no, we don’t need to elect more of the problem—we’re not going to solve the problem by electing more of it.”
Palin concluded in her Breitbart News interview by noting that the good guys are all aligning behind Moore, a sign that the people will get a real champion if and when he gets to the U.S. Senate.
“Judge Moore, he’s got the right people on his side, especially those who are in office now who have been bold enough to put their reputations on the line and come out and endorse and say ‘yeah, we want to work with him back in D.C., because he’s going to be on the people’s side and he’ll have the people’s back,’” Palin said. “That’s impressive, is the people who he has attracted to his campaign. More power to them.”