Sarah Palin offered to 'keep an eye on' Russia from Alaska

The former vice presidential candidate alluded to a 2008 remark that earned her significant criticism on foreign policy

Sarah Palin (Getty)

Amid the ongoing concern over the role Russia played in intervening in the US election, former vice presidential candidate and conservative firebrand Sarah Palin offered to lend a helping hand in monitoring the country.

The former governor of Alaska chimed in on the recent report that said CIA officials determined that Russian-sponsored hackers “tried to help” Donald Trump win the election. Mr Trump has dismissed the apparent findings of the intelligence community as “another excuse” for Democrats to explain Hillary Clinton’s loss.

Ms Palin appeared to question the report, as well.

“Russia’s getting out of hand? So says the defeated,” she tweeted. “Remember, I can keep an eye on them from here.”

Ms Palin alluded to a comment – perhaps in jest – for which she earned criticism during the 2008 campaign with Arizona Sen John McCain.

“They’re our next-door neighbours,” Ms Palin told ABC in 2008. “And you can actually see Russia, from land, here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”

The remarks prompted criticism that Ms Palin did not have the foreign policy background to be the second in line for the presidency. But she later touted a remark she made in that election about Russia invading Ukraine if Barack Obama were elected.

In 2014, after Russian forces did in fact execute the invasion, Ms Palin boasted of her “prediction” in a Facebook statement.

“Yes, I could see this one from Alaska,” she said. “I’m usually not one to Told-Ya-So, but I did, despite my accurate prediction being derided as ‘an extremely far-fetched scenario’."