Sarah Palin tied the arrest of her son on domestic abuse charges to his military service in a speech supporting Donald Trump on Wednesday, as she accused Barack Obama of not supporting veterans.
“My own family, my son, a combat vet having served in the Stryker brigade ... my son, like so many others, they come back a bit different, they come back hardened, they come back wondering if there is that respect for what it is that their fellow soldiers and airmen and every other member of the military so sacrificially have given to this country. And that starts from the top,” she told a crowd in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
She added: “The question, though, it comes from the top, the question, though, that comes from our own president 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 and to secure the freedoms that have been bequeathed us?’”
Track Palin, 26, who served a year in Iraq with the army, was arrested earlier this week in a domestic violence case in which his girlfriend told police she was afraid he would shoot himself with a rifle. He was charged with assault, interfering with the report of a domestic violence crime and possessing a weapon while intoxicated in connection with the incident.
“When my own son is going through what he goes through, coming back, I can certainly appreciate other families who kind of feel these ramifications of PTSD.”
The former Republican vice-presidential nominee – who came out for Trump at an event in Iowa on Tuesday – said “it’s now or never” for the military to have a commander in chief who would respect and honor them.
Palin said the country needed a president who “will treat vets better than illegal immigrants”.
