Is Sarah Palin About to Endorse Trump?

townhall.com

I'll admit it -- when this speculation began mounting yesterday, I wasn't remotely sold on the idea that Palin was poised jump aboard the Trump Train when so many influential figures within the conservative talk radio constellation are at long last blasting The Donald and rallying to Cruz. The Palin speculation seemed even less plausible when this rumor leaked:

Multiple little birdies tell me Jerry Falwell, Jr. is going to endorse Trump for president and come to Iowa with him tomorrow.

— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow)January 18, 2016 Falwell bestowed a fulsome introduction upon Donald "Two Corinthians" Trump just yesterday -- much to the dismay of many in the evangelical community -- so Deace's report made sense. Surely that's the big announcement and "special guest" Trump's been pumping on social media, right?  Not so fast, my friends:

Wow. Palin's jet following Trump campaign; endorsement imminent. Broken via flight records:https://t.co/BALN6KGFSEhttps://t.co/Z4rFX0mirY

— Matt Popovich (@mpopv) January 19, 2016 Interesting. But so what if there's a private jet bound from Anchorage to Iowa? That could be a coincidence. Or...uh, maybe not:

@LPDonovan did you see it went to Tulsa next  https://t.co/T3c292TN11 https://t.co/s6q4PMgPSG

— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew)January 19, 2016 Oh my.  The jet is headed to Ames Des Moines, then hopping over to Tulsa?  Exactly mirroring Trump's campaign itinerary?  Dude. This might actually be happening. And what a splash it would make less than two weeks before Iowa.  Should Palin's endorsement both come to fruition (there have been clues along the way), and push Trump over the top, emotionalist nationalistic populism will have officially -- perhaps temporarily -- supplanted principled, policy-driven, limited-government conservatism as the dominant strain within the American right-wing. I'll leave you with this, because why not?Buckle up, amigos.  If you need me, I'll be passed out under my desk:

Gonna watch the Trump/Palin rally with the largest bottle of bourbon I can find.

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 19, 2016 UPDATE - The Washington Post wonders if the Iowa leg is merely a coincidental refueling stop for an unrelated flight. But that would be out of the way, geographically. The Palin buzz continues to grow, to the point of rival campaigns doing preemptive damage control:

Cruz spokesman: "Deeply" disappointing if Palin endorses Trumphttps://t.co/Iofd2LoB1upic.twitter.com/H1floEjZqA

— The Hill (@thehill) January 19, 2016

COMMENTS

Trump rents Iowa theater to show Benghazi movie

www.desmoinesregister.com

Show ThumbnailsShow CaptionsLast SlideNext SlideBuy Photo

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves to the crowd after speaking at a campaign stop at The Surf Ballroom on Saturday, Jan. 09, 2016, in Clear Lake.(Photo: Brian Powers/The Register)Buy Photo

Donald Trump has rented space at an Urbandale movie theater and will give Iowans free tickets to a showing of the Benghazi movie that critics of Hillary Clinton have been eagerly awaiting.

“Mr. Trump would like all Americans to know the truth about what happened at Benghazi,” the GOP presidential candidate’s Iowa co-chair Tana Goertz said Thursday night.

Trump will pay for the showing of “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” at 6 p.m. Friday at the Carmike Cobblestone 9 Theatre at 86th Street and Hickman Road, Goertz said.

“The theater is paid for. The tickets are paid for. You just have to RSVP,” she said.

The movie depicts the terrorist raid on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012. It reportedly makes no mention of Clinton, then the U.S. Secretary of State, but has again raised the topic of the Democratic presidential candidate’s role in the tragedy, three months after Republicans grilled her on her response to the attacks during an 11-hour congressional hearing in October.

Trump, a billionaire New York real estate entrepreneur, flies to Iowa for a 10 a.m. campaign rally on Friday at Living History Farms in Urbandale. He’s currently in second place in the GOP presidential race here, trailing Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz by 3 points, the latest Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll shows.

Trump has said he’s willing to spend a billion dollars to win the GOP nomination. “I make $400 million a year so what difference does it make?” he told reporters in Iowa in August.

Tickets for the movie, which opened Thursday, cost about $8 each, the theater’s website shows.

The word "Benghazi" has re-emerged in the GOP race. In the GOP debate in South Carolina Thursday night, presidential rival Jeb Bush was first to bring it up, saying Clinton would “continue down the path of Benghazi” and would be “a national security mess.”

Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/1RoOXwK

COMMENTS