Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday that “Late Night” host David Letterman “crossed the line” when he joked about her daughters.
“I would like to see him apologize to young women across the country” for contributing to a culture “that says it’s OK to talk about statutory rape,” Palin told Matt Lauer on TODAY. “It's not cool; it's not funny.”
During his opening monologue on CBS’ “Late Night” Monday, Letterman poked fun at Palin’s visit with her family to a New York Yankees game this past weekend. “There was one awkward moment during the seventh inning stretch,” Letterman said. “Her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.”
Letterman also said the hardest part about the Palins’ trip to New York was “keeping [former New York Gov.] Eliot Spitzer away from her daughter.”
“I don't find it humorous,” Palin said Friday. Speaking by satellite from Texas, where she’s championing a $26 billion natural gas energy pipeline for her home state, Palin criticized “acceptance of a celebrity being able to get away with a disparaging comment that does erode a young girl’s self-esteem and does contribute to some of the problems we have in society.”
‘From the heart’
Letterman did give an apology of sorts later in the week when it became clear that it was Palin’s younger daughter, Willow, 14, who had come to town — not Willow’s older sister, Bristol, who has broken up with the father of her infant son. But Palin declined Letterman’s offer to appear on his show, saying “it would be wise to keep Willow away from” him.
On TODAY Friday, Lauer asked the governor if she had been implying that Willow would not be safe around the late-night comedian. “Take it however you want to take it,” Palin replied. “It was a comment that came from the heart.”
“Hey, it's not in bad taste,” the governor added. “Maybe he couldn’t be trusted because Willow has had enough of these kinds of antics, and maybe she would want to react in a way that would take him off guard.”