DES MOINES, Iowa — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin slammed Iowa Republican Rep. [crscore]Steve King[/crscore], national co-chairman for [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore]’s presidential campaign, for accusing her of being bought off by Donald Trump.
King told MSNBC’s Chris Jansing Monday of Palin’s endorsement, “I didn’t hear a reason from Sarah Palin. She just said it wasn’t a hard call. There aren’t very many people who have been able to say no to Donald Trump.”
“[It is] not only the plus-ups of the promotion, the limelight,” added King. “He has a massive amount of assets and resources that he can deploy when it comes time to convince someone. That has to impact how people think.”
When asked by Jansing if he thought Palin’s endorsement was not done out of “true support for Donald Trump but self-interest,” King responded: “I would say that knowing what I know, you never really get down to the heart of hearts. [But] when I see where Sarah Palin has been on policies and issues, I am confident that she is much more comfortable on the issues with Ted Cruz that she is with Donald Trump.”
King previously told The Daily Caller during a Cruz rally in Ames that he “know[s] things” about Trump’s endorsements.
“Among those are the assets that we would naturally think of, including the attraction that might be for, oh who knows, a reality TV show, a job in the Trump machine,” he said.
Palin shot back at King’s accusation on Monday at an Iowa rally for Trump.
“As I suggested, politics is kind of a brutal business. That’s for sure. You go through your own battles–maybe with family–maybe with friends at least in the arena of ideas duking it out–trying to find that best candidate to lead the country. Let me give you an example of some of the tiny bit of brutality and then the grand scheme of things, really. It’s not that big of a deal, but you guys will appreciate it because you guys are from Iowa,” she said.
“We got your good old Representative Steve King–friend of mine I thought. Here I see just a bit ago, some body is showing me a story, he’s accusing me on MSNBC–first, MSNBC? really? I know–of selling my support to Mr. Trump. And this is why when you read things like this, people don’t really like politics,” Palin said.
She continued, “They know that it’s dirty business, because people will say things that they know are untrue. But why would a good conservative guy like Steve King from the heartland of America want to say something he knows isn’t true,” she said, adding in part, “That just doesn’t sound like the heartland of America. Maybe he’s forgotten some of his heart in the heartland and he’s got a touch of that Potomac fever there in DC. Maybe he’s been hanging out in a cornfield too long huffing ethanol or something. His accusations here are way off base.”