This video is of Matt Lauer's interview of Sarah Palin on the Today Show shown this morning. Complete Transcript.
Excerpt:
LAUER: There is this feeling -- and some of this comes from leaks and other just perception, people getting a gut -- that there was increasing tension between you and Senator McCain in the final stretch of this campaign. Tell me what the relationship was like.
S. PALIN: We have a great relationship. Had from day one. Had the first time that I met him last year, he and his wife. I just have been great admirers of them, of their family, of all that Senator McCain has accomplished. Never once was there any inkling of tension between the two of us. Perhaps within the campaign there were campaign staffers who...
LAUER: Well, describe that for me. Who was butting heads?
S. PALIN: You know, I don’t even know. That inside baseball stuff regarding the way a campaign works on that level -- I certainly didn’t get bogged down in any of the potential skirmishes or perceived problems.
LAUER: Have you listened to some of the leaks that have come out since the election where -- where they’re saying that the McCain people leaked anonymously -- are saying, “We couldn’t control her, she was a rogue, she didn’t want our consultants around her and it became tense.”
Where did stories like that come from?
S. PALIN: I honestly do not know, because it’s not true, Matt. And Senator McCain and I, we have a great relationship. I have nothing but honor and admiration and love for him and for his family, and I think that is mutual. In fact, I talked to him just today, again, and we -- touching base nearly every day.
LAUER: So, it’s a warm and friendly relationship even to to this day?
S. PALIN: Very warm and friendly and professional. And I -- I -- again, I have nothing but honor and admiration and love that I will show for this great American hero.
LAUER: According to a recent article in Newsweek and some other reports, on election night, you showed up at the Biltmore in Phoenix...
S. PALIN: Yes.
LAUER: ... and things weren’t going well. And you had some copy in your hands. You had some remarks that you would have liked to have given to that audience, and, in effect, to the nation, prior to Senator McCain giving his concession speech. And you were told, “No”.
S. PALIN: Well, I had a speech that, you know, I was going to give that we’d worked on about a week. And the speech was...
LAUER: Had you cleared with anyone? Had anyone -- anyone said it might be an opportunity for you to speak?
S. PALIN: Oh, certainly, the -- the speech was written in -- in cooperation and conjunction with a couple of the speech writers in the campaign -- and had written that as an introduction to this great American hero. And of course, we had two speeches in our back pocket.
LAUER: Right.
S. PALIN: One was a concession speech that would introduce him, and it would do what John McCain just can’t seem to do for himself -- bless his heart, because he’s not that kind of man -- where I was going to brag him up and say, “You know, truly he’s an American hero, has faced great adversity, knows how challenges are overcome. And let us -- let us be thankful for this man, who with a servant’s heart had offered himself up to...
(CROSSTALK)
LAUER: So that sounds like a good idea. Why weren’t you allowed to do it?
S. PALIN: I don’t know. It was a great speech because it also then, also said, “OK, but American voters have spoken, so now, let’s all come together. I know Senator McCain wants to lead in an effort of unity here in our nation, and let’s work with President-elect Obama and let’s go forward.”
LAUER: So you walked up and you said to somebody in the campaign, “Look, I’ve got these comments I’d like to make. I want to,” as you say, “brag on him a little bit?”
S. PALIN: Yes.
LAUER: Who said no?
S. PALIN: Somebody said no, they said that it would be unprecedented, that a V.P. candidates wouldn’t introduce someone in a concession speech. And you know, all I could say was...
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