Sarah Palin Responds to McCain Saying He Regrets Picking Her as VP - 'He Has Been My Friend'
Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin took the high road when asked about Sen. John McCain’s reported regret over picking her as his running mate in 2008.
The New York Times revealed last week that McCain, 81, writes in his new book “The Restless Wave” that he wishes he had picked his former Senate colleague, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, instead.
Lieberman was a Democrat-turned-independent at the time.
“(McCain) recalls that his advisers warned him that picking a vice-presidential candidate who caucused with Democrats and supported abortion rights would divide Republicans and doom his chances,” according to The Times.
“It was sound advice that I could reason for myself,” he writes. “But my gut told me to ignore it and I wish I had.”
Palin told the U.K. Daily Mail that McCain had never expressed those kind of sentiments to her.
“That’s not what Sen. McCain has told me all these years, as he’s apologized to me repeatedly for the people who ran his campaign — some who now staff MSNBC, the newsroom there, which tells you a lot,” she said.
Palin went on to contend that the views expressed in the book may not be entirely McCain’s.
“I attribute a lot of what we’re hearing and reading regarding McCain’s statements to his ghostwriter or ghostwriters,” she explained. “I don’t know unless I heard it from Sen. McCain myself.”
“It happens to me also where people speak for me and a bell is rung, and you can’t un-ring the bell,” Palin added.
She also noted that she does not know what the senator’s current medical condition is. He is in Arizona being treated for an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Palin admitted it is unnerving to read of the media accounts of McCain second guessing his decision in 2008.
“It’s not a real fun thing that part of my job is the requirement — is having to read the news every day,” said the former Alaska governor.
MSNBC caught up with Palin on Friday and questioned her about McCain’s reputed regret.
“He’s been my friend, so I’m going to remember the good times,” she said. “You know it is kind of sad to hear that he, and/or someone speaking for him, does have regrets.”
Palin continued, “I want to live my life without any regrets, and I hope that he finds that kind of peace and contentment also.”
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