In an interview with the news outlet Newsmax TV on Saturday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin lambasted ex-US President Barack Obama for linking her to part of the Republican Party's "anti-intellectual" wing.
The comments followed harsh remarks by Obama about Palin in his book "A Promised Land", due to be released on 17 November. Some extracts from the book were earlier obtained by US media outlets.
"Through Palin, it seemed as if the dark spirits that had long been lurking on the edges of the modern Republican Party—xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, paranoid conspiracy theories, an antipathy toward Black and brown folks—were finding their way to center stage. She had no idea what the hell she was talking about", the former president asserted.
Palin, who is also a former Republican vice presidential candidate, said Obama is "so still 2008" and that "it's funny because with the price of rent today, it's kind of pleasurable to know I've been living rent-free in his head for 12 years", in an apparent reference to the 2008 US presidential election.
At the time, then-Republican presidential hopeful John McCain had selected Palin as his running mate. They were later defeated by Democratic candidate Obama and his running mate Joe Biden, who then became US vice president.
“The movement that he [Obama] still cannot accept nor understand evidently that began in our campaign that he now blames me for—so many Republicans being so active and elected lately—that movement was all about giving the voiceless a voice, empowering people who are fed up, want accountability in their government, want a smaller, smarter government, things that he just hasn't been able to grasp", Palin said.
She also argued that the Republican Party had evolved into a multicultural organisation that handles all of its members irrespective of the colour of their skin or their gender, which she claimed is not the case with Democrats.
At the same time, Palin took aim at the GOP establishment, which she claimed likes neither her nor President Donald Trump, because "[…] they don't like anybody going rogue, shaking it up, not taking their turn".
She also berated Obama and Biden for being "out of touch" with conservatives, also mocking the title of the former POTUS' book, which Palin said she finds "offensive".
"Who does he think he is, Moses? God? He sure tries to make this all sound so scary and spooky", the former Republican vice presidential nominee noted.
