The Craziest Lines From The Palin/Trump Interview

Last night's interview between former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and 2016 candidate Donald Trump was a snoozefest, though a weirdly intriguing one. In the 10-minute exchange between the two Republicans, which was aired on the One America News Network (OANN), the conversation ran the gamut of veterans to poll numbers to the obvious Lamestream Media™, but never once broached the topic of Trump's wild antics over the past few months. If nothing else, though, several memorable lines from the Palin/Trump interview actually served as proof that neither of them really knows what they're talking about — probably not the end result that the small cable news network was hoping for.

After interviewing Trump's rival GOP candidates former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, as well as non-candidate and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (randomly thrown in, for some reason), Palin welcomed Trump onto the segment (or, rather, an out-of-focus Trump and some very excited onlookers).

"So, Mr. Trump, I had James Carville on yesterday — remember his 'It's the economy... silly,'" said Palin. "How is our economy really doing, especially reacting to world markets?"

Trump, with a slightly bored look on his face, replied,

Well, if you really look, Sarah, at the economy, it's been terrible. We have 93 million people out of work. ... We lost tremendous amounts of jobs to China, to Japan, to Mexico, and to so many other places. ... They've just destroyed our job base, and we have to make a lot of improvement.

The China-Japan-Mexico trio seems to be one of Trump's favorite lines — and quite frankly, it's getting a bit tired (unless you watch this video of Trump referring to China 234 times in a row, then it's just quality entertainment). In a 2011 Global China Summit, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband both agreed with their international counterparts that large Chinese investments in the United States were actually helping the U.S. economy and playing a "vital" role in its healing process, as the country rebounds from the 2007 financial crisis and the 2010 Flash Crash, which left markets reeling. So, what was stopping the Chinese from making more golden investments? According to former U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, it was the United States' tangled Visa system, whose long wait times often deterred foreign investors and businesses from setting down roots.

"Somehow, the United States has an aversion to smart people," said Barshefsky, in an statement to Talking Points Memo that month. "You go to school here, you get your master's here, you get your Ph.D. here — and then we say, 'goodbye.'"

China wasn't the only glaring point of contention from Friday night's interview between Palin and Trump either — there were plenty of other ridiculous lines from the evening, all of which showcased just how ignorant the former vice presidential candidate and billionaire magnate really are.

"Do They Ask Hillary That?"

Referencing the recent verbal tussle between Trump and two Bloomberg reporters who asked the GOP candidate for his favorite Bible verse, Palin complained,

You get hit with these gotchas, like "What’s your favorite Bible verse?" I’m like, "Do they ask Hillary that?" What does that have to do with running for the office of the presidency?

Here's the short answer, Mrs. Palin: They don't ask Hillary Clinton that question because Clinton doesn't hoist up the religious text as proof of her American-ness. Donald Trump brought up the Bible himself in his campaign rally on Aug. 21, likely to play to the crowd of conservative voters, and is therefore fair game. End of discussion.

"The Press Agree With What I Did"

Reacting to Tuesday night's incident in Iowa, during which Univision anchor Jorge Ramos was summarily tossed from Trump's press conference after attempting to ask the candidate about his immigration proposal (Trump notably scoffed, "Go back to Univision" in reply before calling security to escort Ramos out of the room), Palin asked Trump:

You’re seeing some idiots in the press. They’re misrepresenting your exchange with some political activists — the father of the Clinton staffer, Univision’s Jorge Ramos, and you schooled that radical activist. And it was the right thing to do because I don’t think he’s going to pull that again. Where’d you get your guts for that radical confrontation?

Trump replied,

Actually, the press, they agreed with what I did. ... [Ramos] was totally out of line — he was screaming and ranting and raving.

Anyone who's seen the video can attest to the fact that Ramos was not, in fact, "screaming and ranting and raving," nor was asking his questions as a "radical activist" — Ramos was simply confronting Trump on his radical deportation plan to eject some 11 million immigrants from the United States' borders, if elected president. And while some big news names did side with Trump, the majority of the press wasn't too pleased with the incident, despite what Trump may think.

Military Members Have "Respect For A Truth-Talker" Like Trump

During one stuttering segment of Friday's interview, Palin claimed that she had been speaking with military members "every day," many of whom had "respect for a truth-talker" like Trump.

"[There's] a connection there that I'd like to know more about," Palin said. "The respect that they have for a 'truth-talker,' as opposed to just getting punched in the nose the last seven years under Obama — how is it that you made that connection?"

"Well, you're one of the people that would know, because you have that connection also, Sarah," Trump fawned. "It's one of the reasons I've always liked you so much — you and your family." Trump then cited the fact that he wasn't afraid to talk about the poor status of the Veterans Affairs department and its treatment of former military members as "third-class" citizens, bragging that he had earned high votes with veterans because they knew he would "fix" things for them.

Conveniently, it seems Trump forgot all about his earlier insults directed toward military POWs like John McCain, and the scores of veterans that lined up to take their own jabs at the billionaire business mogul in response. Oops.

We Won "With The Moderates, With The Poor, And With The Rich"

One of those things is not like the others. It seems to make sense that Trump would win with the rich. After all, his comments on keeping golf a "rich" person's sport and his general enigmatic "billionaire" appeal, with all his pressed suits and refusal to apologize for his many material assets, seem to be seen as something of a goal for a good portion of his party. Even Trump's insistence that Republicans raise taxes on the uber-wealthy doesn't seem to have bumped him in the polls.

But when Trump insisted to Palin on Friday, "We ... won with the moderates, with the poor, with the rich [...] we won on every category," he wasn't quite telling the truth. New CNN/ORC numbers put out last week showed that, while Trump had gained in national surveys and was polling high with right wing conservatives, his favorability with moderates was actually much lower — around 35 percent.

It's also unclear where Trump got the idea that "the poor" are on his side. Of course, there was a recent Washington Post/ABC poll which showed that one-third of working class, Caucasian voters with no college degree were more than willing to cast their weight behind an eventual Trump presidency. But those voters don't represent the majority of the working class in America, many of whom are, ironically enough, black and Hispanic females between the ages of 18 and 65 — the same groups that Trump has been more than happy to ostracize in his angry rants.

Unfortunately for Trump, it seems he may be drinking his own Kool-Aid on this one.