Palin: Obama administration's incompetence shining bright in Ebola crisis

Palin: Obama's incompetence shining through in Ebola crisis

Former governor says there is a 'void of leadership' in Ebola crisis in US, blasts lack of coordination between feds and states, says Obama administration can't be counted on to do anything right. #Ebola

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," October 27, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: So far, at least nine states have issued stricter guidelines for those returning from Ebola hot zones than the CDC. Should we have inconsistent policies? Should President Obama step in?

Governor Sarah Palin joins us. Good evening, Governor.

SARAH PALIN, FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: Thank you, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: Governor, it seems -- first of all, where do you fall on this to put people in quarantine or not who have no symptoms coming from the hot zones?

PALIN: I do think that there needs to be that quarantine. But, see, this is par for the course that Obama's incompetency, his administration's incompetency is really shining bright in this one. And if only President Obama would put America first this time. We know that the most efficient and effective level of government is that which is closest to the people, obviously, state government, leadership there is more connected and much more efficient and effective than that far-off bubble, Washington, D.C. , trying to call the shots for these governors. No. There is a void of leadership here. And the governors need to step up and step in.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Well, Governor Christie and Governor Cuomo, whether one agrees with them or not, they did step up. Governor Quinn of Illinois as well has said it. If you were still governor of Alaska, what would do you?

PALIN: You know, I would talk to the other governors. And I betcha we would come to the conclusion that you can't trust the Obama administration to really do much of anything right, so, yes, we would take it upon ourselves to exercise our Tenth Amendment right, and that is states rights, taking over some of these issues, especially that it is proven that the federal government isn't able to do.

But, also, a big picture here, Greta, that I don't hear a lot of people talking about right now is, we know that liberals will capitalize on any crisis. In fact, this administration, some characters within it have advocated for and even advertised their desire to capitalize on crisis. They are not going to let it go to waste. Those are Alinsky tactics, rules for radicals. One of those rules is, yes, you capitalize on crisis. It's kind of a fear mode that they don't mind the people of America being in, so that the people of America would think that they have to rely on Big Brother government to answer the questions for them and solve the problem.

VAN SUSTEREN: I have heard every expert in the area of medicine on Ebola saying that you are only contagious if you are showing some symptoms. I have heard nobody suggest -- although I know people are panic-strickened, who wants to be around someone that just came from that area treating Ebola patients. But in light of that, what do we do, basically, quarantine everyone who comes off, knowing that the experts say that they are not contagious if they don't exhibit any symptoms?

PALIN: If we really want to make sure that this virus is contained and if we cannot rely on the federal government getting their stuff together and getting politics out of this issue and allowing the medical community to tell us what it is that needs to be done in each state, with each airplane landing that would have passengers in there, perhaps coming from West Africa or another nation that is suffering from Ebola, we're going to have to demand of our leadership in Washington and on the state level to get politics out of this and allow the medical community to tell us factually what needs to be done.

VAN SUSTEREN: I don't even know if this is politics. I think it's more "asleep at the wheel." In some ways, I don't blame the governors for trying to just do something about it because, look, last March, the World Health Organization warned about Ebola. They did it again in August. And, you know, it does require leadership to set some sort of standard. This is the problem. This is what we are going to do. This is what we have. Instead, we are playing catch up this whole time and throwing everybody into chaos and people into panic, and we can't each make good decisions because everybody is so freaked out because we have no sort of leadership on this.

PALIN: That's exactly right. And this isn't the first time that we have encountered Ebola. Look, in the last 40 years, how many times has this cropped up, along with other viruses, too? Remember, Samaritan's Purse, the doctor volunteering there, that was a long time ago, relatively speaking, Greta, where the issue was at the forefront of America's mind because you were covering it and others were covering this doctor who was going to be suffering from Ebola. You would have thought even thought those weeks ago that the Obama administration would have gotten their stuff together and been able to help advise, of course, American citizens what we're going to do.

But remember, too, this is an issue, though, of not -- we don't want any level of government to practice overreach because what, again, a liberal administration would want to do is promise the people that if you give up a little bit of your freedom, we will give you a little more security and, in the meantime, you will lose both. So, state level, federal level, we have to make sure that it's scientifically based, medically based solution to the problems we are facing with Ebola, not allow politics to creep in and the capitalization on a crisis because we're going to lose our freedom and security if we continue down this road.

VAN SUSTEREN: Governor, thank you for joining us.

PALIN: Thank you.