Sarah Palin Calls Out Donald Trump Protesters for "Punk-Ass Little Thuggery"

On Monday afternoon, "right-wingin', bitter-clingin', proud clinger" of misguided tirades Sarah Palin stumped for Republican frontrunner Donald Trump in Tampa, Florida, on the eve of the state's Republican primary. Though she was there to bolster support for Trump, she also had a few choice words for the protesters who were at Trump's Chicago rally on Friday. 

"What we don't have time for is all that petty, punk-ass little thuggery stuff that's been going on with those quote-unquote protesters who are doing nothing but wasting your time and trying to take away your First Amendment rights, your rights to assemble peacefully," the Guardian reported Palin told the crowd, who roared throughout her rant.

Palin also called out the media — the one, singular, all-encompassing media — for "being on the thugs' side." 

Even though Palin was concerned about the rights of Trump's supporters, she did not comment on whether she was happy that Trump's opponents exercised their First Amendment right to assemble. 

Palin is not the first to call Trump's protesters "thugs." In a tweet sent after he decided to cancel the rally, Trump used the same words to describe those who voiced opposition to the event. 

Both Trump's and Palin's uses of the word "thug" speak volumes about how they describe who attended the protest: The word is often used when referring to black people.

After people — including Trump — used the word to describe Baltimore protesters, people on Twitter used the hashtag #KnowTheCode to point out that the word "thug" is often a stand-in for a word that cannot be used in polite speech. You know, the one that starts with "N."