While speaking at a Donald Trump campaign stop Wednesday in Tulsa, Okla., Sarah Palin addressed the "elephant in the room": her son Track's domestic violence arrest. And she seemingly pinned it on a perceived lack of respect for military veterans on the part of President Obama.
"My son, like so many others, they come back a bit different, they come back hardened," she said. "They come back wondering if there is that respect for what it is that their fellow soldiers and airman and every other member of the military so sacrificially have given to this country," she added. "And that starts from the top."
"That comes from our own president," she elaborated, "where they have to look at him and wonder, 'Do you know what we go through? Do you know what we're trying to do to secure America?'"
"So when my own son is going through what he goes through coming back, I can certainly relate with other families who kind of feel these ramifications of some PTSD and some of the woundedness that our soldiers do return with," she continued before pivoting back to why she was in Oklahoma in the first place.
"And it makes me realize, more than ever, it is now or never, for the sake of America's finest, that we have that commander-in-chief who will respect them and honor them." That would be Trump, she said.
On Monday evening, the eldest Palin child—a military veteran—was charged with fourth-degree assault, interfering with a report of domestic violence, and possession of a weapon while intoxicated. According to the police report, Track allegedly punched his girlfriend in the face when she attempted to call police during a dispute. Concerned that Palin would shoot himself, the girlfriend called the police; and Track later called into 911 to inform dispatchers that the other caller was drunk. He was released from jail on $1,500 bail and is scheduled back in court on February 19.
