As rumors swirled Tuesday that Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, would endorse Donald Trump in Iowa, the former Alaska governor posted on Twitter a link to a comment from her daughter Bristol slamming Sen. Ted Cruz, who holds a slim lead over Trump in the polls there.
"Is THIS Why People Don't Like Cruz?" Sarah Palin asked in her tweet, with a link to a blog post by her daughter under that headline.
Bristol Palin, in the blog item, teased the speculation about her mother's intentions.
"Is my Mom going to endorse Donald Trump for President of the United States?" Bristol Palin wrote. "That's the rumor, and I've been too busy with diapers to delve too much into politics these days. But the rumors were enough to cause staffers from Ted Cruz's office to slam my mom."
She pointed to an assertion by Rick Tyler, Cruz's spokesman, on CNN, that supporting Trump would align Sarah Palin, "a champion for the conservative cause," with "someone who's held progressive views all their life on the sanctity of life, on marriage, on partial-birth abortion."
Bristol Palin said that she didn't know whether the endorsement would happen, but that what Cruz's camp was now saying about her mother "makes me hope my mom does endorse Trump."
Trump has a rally set for 6 p.m. Eastern in Ames, Iowa, that is billed as a "major announcement" with a "special guest."