DES MOINES, Iowa – Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin called President Obama “an overgrown little boy” Saturday, criticizing him for using an executive order to change immigration policy instead of waiting for the traditional legislative process.
Palin’s remarks came at the Iowa Freedom Summit, part of a speech in which her barbed, broad-ranging commentary caused a buzz on social media Saturday evening.
In the speech, given before 1,200 conservative activists and broadcast nationally on C-SPAN, Palin also addressed two photographs that had received considerable national attention lately. One picture showed her at a Las Vegas gun show appearing next to a sign that used a curse word aimed at filmmaker Michael Moore; Palin said she was simply looking at the sign when a picture was taken. The other photo showed her young son standing on the family dog to reach the kitchen sink. Palin said it was better than eating dog, which, she said, Obama said he did while a boy in Indonesia.
It was her remarks about the president and immigration policy that drew the most applause.
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“An impatient president doesn’t just get to trample our Constitution and ignore Congress just because he doesn’t get exactly what he wants every time he wants it,” Palin said. “It’s like an overgrown little boy who’s just acting kind of spoiled. And moms, we don’t put up with that, do we?”
Palin’s appearance followed an interview with the Washington Post Friday in which she said she is “seriously interested’’ in running for the White House in 2016. ‘‘You can absolutely say that I am seriously interested,’’ she told the paper.
Palin, the Republicans’ 2008 vice presidential candidate, also spoke about the potential presidential candidacy of Democrat Hillary Clinton. She said that the national media somehow believes that “a pantsuit can crush patriots” and that it would “take a village” to beat Clinton in 2016.
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Scott Conroy, a political reporter who co-authored a Palin biography, tweeted, “I don’t say this lightly. This is the strangest speech I’ve ever seen Sarah Palin deliver.”
I don't say this lightly. This is the strangest speech I've ever seen Sarah Palin deliver.
— Scott Conroy (@ScottFConroy) January 24, 2015
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly described Sarah Palin’s remarks about Hillary Clinton.