Sarah Palin Has a Message for Immigrants: ‘Speak American’
Sarah Palin is calling on immigrants in the United States to “speak American.”
The former Republican vice presidential nominee made the comment Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” She was responding to a question from host Jake Tapper, who mentioned the dustup between GOP presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Jeb Bush after Trump suggested candidates should not speak Spanish on the campaign trail.
“It’s a benefit of Bush to be able to be so fluent, because we have a large and wonderful Hispanic population that’s helping to build America, and that’s a great relationship and connection he has with them,” Palin told Tapper.
“On the other hand, 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. Let’s speak English, and that’s a kind of a unifying aspect of a nation is the language that is understood by all.”
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Palin also disagreed with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who said last week that the Republican Party “often appears cold and unwelcoming to minorities.”
“I can’t think of any Republican that I know who would have that in their heart,” Palin said. “(The Republican Party) is the party that would wish to bring people in together, standing together, putting America first,” she added.
Palin started out the interview by discussing President Obama’s recent visit to her home state of Alaska.
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She slammed the President for changing the name of the country’s tallest peak from Alaska’s Mount McKinley to its local name of “Denali.”
“I think a lot of the criticism though Jake, is just that Obama would spend the time, the effort, the political capital even on such a thing when the Middle East is a tinderbox, our economy still sucks, so many things are going wrong right now that are under his purview,” she said. “And yet he would kind of make it a big darn deal to come up here and rename a mountain.”
Palin also pitched herself as energy secretary if Donald Trump is elected president.
Watch the full CNN interview below.
