A former Republican strategist has mocked the current political alliance between former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former President Donald Trump.
Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to the late Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, told The Guardian that Trump’s support for Palin was “annoying”.
Palin was McCain’s running mate that year and is now seeking to be elected to Alaska’s only seat in the US House of Representatives, where Trump has endorsed her.
Former US vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R) and former president Donald Trump walk to a limousine after leaving Trump Tower, at 56th Street and 5th Avenue, on May 31, 2011 in New York . Trump is endorsing Palin in her campaign for a seat in the House of Representatives. Andrew Burton/Getty Images
“It’s a pretty tedious job at the moment,” Schmidt told The Guardian in an article published on Saturday.
“The outburst of two deranged people is newsworthy only in the sense that it is an open question whether the citizens of a democratic republic are potentially apathetic enough to allow such people to return to political power when their previous association with it ended in such deep shame,” he said.
Trump is holding a rally in Anchorage on Saturday in support of Palin and Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is running for re-election.
The former president will also use the event to promote U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Chibaka, who is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Trump took aim at Murkowski, calling her a “failed candidate” and vowing to campaign against her. The senator voted to impeach the then-president after the events of January 6, 2021, and also congratulated President Joe Biden on his election victory.
Chibaka, by contrast, has raised questions about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, while Trump has repeatedly made baseless claims of voter fraud and other irregularities.
Schmidt was in charge of the day-to-day operations of the McCain campaign and was the first to suggest Palin as the late senator’s running mate, although he later offered strong public criticism of Palin.
Schmidt has also been a vocal critic of Trump and left the Republican Party in 2018, citing the administration’s controversial policy of separating the families of migrants who crossed into the US from Mexico.
Palin served as governor of Alaska from 2006 to 2009 before resigning. She has not held public office since then.
She is now seeking to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Republican Rep. Don Young in March. She will run in a special election on August 16 to fill the vacancy, but there will also be a regular general election on November 8.
A nonpartisan primary election will also be held Aug. 16, with the top four candidates placed on the ballot for the November election. This is a new system in Alaska, which will also have first-choice voting in the general election.
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