December 19, 2021

Sarah Palin Will Get a COVID Vaccine “Over My Dead Body”

And she can see Russia from her house.

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin speaks at a rally in Montgomery, Ala. Brynn Anderson/AP Photo

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It’s been a while since Sarah Palin has headlined a major political confab, what with time taken up by her busy reality TV schedule, appearing, as she has recently, as a psychedelic teddy bear on “The Masked Singer.”  But this weekend, the former GOP vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor graced the stage of the Turning Point USA “AmericaFest2021” conference in Phoenix. Now a grande dame of the MAGA world, Palin treated the gathered conservative youth to her inimical political commentary and media bashing, while reminding us that the blazing idiocy on display in the Republican Party these days did not start with Donald Trump.

Chatting on stage with Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk about the pandemic and vaccine mandates, Palin said if she had to get a vaccine, “it will be over my dead body.”

Palin’s unintentionally tone deaf (and somewhat hilarious) comment about the vaccine, which has, of course, prevented the deaths of many people around the world, marked a significant change from her comments in late March this year, when Palin, her daughter, and 12-year-old son Trig, who has Down syndrome, all contracted COVID. After suffering through the illness, she urged people to take the virus seriously and to wear marks. “I view wearing that cumbersome mask indoors in a crowd as not only allowing the newfound luxury of being incognito, but trust it’s better than doing nothing to slow the spread,” Palin told People at the time, noting that her father had just gotten his second vaccine dose. “I’m more concerned about him and his peers, and this beautiful older generation’s health and quality of life should be a national focus and priority,” she said.

But these days, not even Donald Trump can tell conservatives to get vaccinated without getting booed. Palin dutifully toed the line with Kirk when she spoke before the crowd of thousands of (probably) under-vaccinated young people not wearing masks, urging the kids to “stiffen your spine” to resist mandates. “There is an empowerment in a group like this where we can kind of feed off each other and really be strong,” she said.

Palin joined an all-star conference lineup of some of the dumbest people in American politics who have her trailblazing career to thank for theirs, including Donald Trump Jr., Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Fla.) and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO). “I’m not vaccinated,” Greene told the Turning Point crowd. “And they’re going to have a hell of a time if they want to hold me down and give me a vaccine.”

 

 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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