President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering Sarah Palin to head the Department of Veterans Affairs.
An unidentified aide to Palin told ABC News that the former half-term governor of Alaska told Trump’s transition team: “I feel as though the megaphone I have been provided can be used in a productive and positive way to help those desperately in need.”
An unidentified Trump transition official confirmed that Palin had been in talks with the team.
Palin does not have experience in running medical care for veterans, but her son Track Palin did a tour of Iraq in 2008 and her son-in-law Dakota Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Meyer posted a video of Palin giving a speech on Facebook, in which she called for vouchers (coupons) for veterans to use outside the VA, demanded “illegal aliens” not get government benefits before vets, said veterans military credentialing should carry over into civilian jobs (already occurs in many states), attacked Congress for cutting veterans’ benefits, called for vetting an honorable commander-in-chief and referred to Muslims as “savages.”
After ABC News broke the story about Palin being considered for secretary of veterans affairs, she wrote on Facebook:
We should be grateful we’ll soon have a commander-in-chief who will champion our vets and honor the promises our nation made; a pro-private sector individual who surely understands bigger government is NOT the answer; a President who promised to drain the swamp and clean up all government corruption… all things our vets and active duty troops deserve.
RawStory.com noted some of the reactions on Twitter to Palin possibly heading up the U.S. government’s largest agency:
“Palin is passionate about the VA, but this is still a bad idea.”
“I cannot even fathom the thought process that leads one to float Sarah Palin for the VA. Did they throw a dart at the wall?”
“If Sarah Palin doesn’t get the VA job, maybe she’ll be the Ambassador to Russia.”
“Logs in to twitter. Sees Sarah Palin is being considered for a cabinet post. Logs off Twitter. Throws phone out the window.”
“on the plus side maybe we’ll hear from Sarah Palin less if she actually has a f******* job.”
Sources: ABC News, RawStory.com, Sarah Palin/Facebook / Photo Credit: Therealbs2002/Wikimedia