Sarah Palin’s Arizona shooting statement blasts journalists and pundits ‘blood libel’
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin broke her silence on the tragedy in Tucson Wednesday, releasing her first comments on the shooting since a brief statement following the incident Saturday.
In her extended remarks — transmitted in a nearly 10-minute address — Palin expresses sympathy for the victims and responds to a flurry of criticism that has been leveled at her and others for supposedly pushing vitriolic political discourse in a manner that may have encouraged the violent flare-up:
There are those who claim political rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged, apparently apolitical criminal. And they claim political debate has somehow gotten more heated just recently. But when was it less heated? Back in those “calm days” when political figures literally settled their differences with dueling pistols? In an ideal world all discourse would be civil and all disagreements cordial. But our Founding Fathers knew they weren’t designing a system for perfect men and women. If men and women were angels, there would be no need for government. Our Founders’ genius was to design a system that helped settle the inevitable conflicts caused by our imperfect passions in civil ways. So, we must condemn violence if our Republic is to endure.
In her statement, she also blasts “journalists and pundits” for “manufacturing a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn.” She adds, “That is reprehensible.”