Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was accused Wednesday of referring to members of the Black Lives Matter movement as “dogs,” but did she really say it?
The former vice presidential candidate’s alleged insult came as she claimed President Obama is unsupportive of police officers and first responders.
“Since our president won’t say it,” Palin said at a Tea Party rally in the nation’s capital, “since he still hasn’t called off the dogs, we will say it: Police officers and first responders all across this great land, we got your back!”
“We salute you!” she cheered. “Thank you police officers!”
Though Palin never said anything specifically about Black Lives Matter activists, a few reporters remain convinced as to the meaning of her “dogs” comment.
“Some folks disagree that Palin calls #BlackLivesMatter ‘dogs’ in this video. She absolutely does,” Blue Nation Review editor Jesse Berney said on social media.
He was among the first to accuse Palin of characterizing BLM members as “dogs.”
“No, she doesn’t call out BLM by name. But it is 100% clear and obvious who she’s referring to. There is zero question about that, and anyone who suggests otherwise is being disingenuous,” he added. “When she says ‘he still hasn’t called off the dogs’ everyone knows who she means.”
Berney conceded that “call off your dogs” is, in fact, a common colloquialism.
“Yes, ‘call off your dogs’ is a colloquialism. It is a colloquialism in which you are calling people dogs in order to insult them,” he wrote. “That’s the whole point. You’re saying someone (in this case BLM) is a vicious, unthinking attack dog who just follows orders.”
“She. Was. Calling. #BlackLivesMatter. Dogs,” he added, inserting a period after each word for added emphasis.
Mediaite’s Matt Wilstein is similarly convinced as to Palin’s meaning.
“Palin Calls #BlackLivesMatter Protesters ‘Dogs’ at Anti-Iran Deal Rally,” read the headline to his write-up on the story.
“Among the speakers at today’s anti-Iran nuclear deal rally in Washington, D.C., was Sarah Palin, who worked a vicious comment about the #BlackLivesMatter movement into her remarks before shifting gears to focus on the topic at hand,” he reported.
Asked if it’s possible that Palin was referring to the Department of Justice’s recent investigations of police departments in Missouri and Maryland, Wilstein told the Washington Examiner’s media desk he stands by his assessment.
“What else could she possibly be talking about in this context?” he asked, adding later in reference to the DOJ question, “I’m sure she would say as much, but the narrative pits #BlackLivesMatter against police so I stand by the assessment.”
The Daily Beast and the Washington Post also featured stories asserting that Palin most definitely meant to refer to BLM when she used the word “dogs.”
The Black Lives Matters movement focuses specifically on police brutality in African-American communities, but it operates independently of Obama. The movement has also come under fire recently for some of its members’ charged rhetoric.
“Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon!” a group of BLM activists chanted during a recent demonstration in New York City.
This and similar rhetoric comes as police departments across the United States mourn the loss of six officers who were shot and killed in the line of duty in August.
A spokesperson for Palin did not respond to the Examiner’s request for comment.
