Palin: 'They're Not Going to Shut Me Up'

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin gives her first interview since the Arizona shooting.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," January 17, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And tonight on "Hannity," my exclusive interview with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Now, this is the Governor's very first television appearance since the horrific shooting in Tucson that took the lives of six Americans and wounded more than a dozen others. She's here to respond to the political finger pointing that took place in the aftermath of that tragedy and much, much more.

And joining me tonight from Wasia, Alaska, is Fox news contributor Governor Sarah Palin. Governor, welcome back.

SARAH PALIN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Thanks, Sean. Thank you for the opportunity.

HANNITY: Let's go back to the very beginning, nine days ago, when the shooting occurred. Where were you and what were you thinking at the time?

PALIN: I was in my home, here in Wasilla, and, of course, my first thought, when I heard of the shooting, was -- and knowing that there were deaths -- was how absolutely atrocious this was and how evil a person would have to be to kill an innocent.

• Full Coverage: Arizona Shooting

And, then, as things unfolded and heard, Sean, about the death of an innocent child, a nine-year-old child, I thought nothing could be as horrendous as that. And, you know, that is the main thing that we need to remember here, even as we proceed in our discussion, Sean, is that there are families mourning and we mourn with those who mourn, we grieve with those who grieve. And may our prayers cover these families. And may, somehow, as we read in the Book of Jeremiah, God touch these families and envelope them in the peace that only he can provide. May he turn their mourning somehow, supernaturally, into joy.

HANNITY: Governor, I Googled your name and I put in the words, Sarah Palin Tucson shooting. And it came up nearly 10,000 times in 10,000 instances where you connected to this. When did you first realize you were being connected to this tragedy?

PALIN: Well, right away, unfortunately, and not just me. And this isn't about me. And my response, four days after this horrendous event, and in my response I talked about defending those who were innocent, had nothing to do with the shooting. And my defense wasn't self defense, it was defending those who were falsely accused.

I found out right away, because when I started to tuning in to hear, well, who did this? And names were not given, but I read my name in the reports. And then, I read Rush Limbaugh and, then, soon your name, Sean, and Mark Levin, and soon, Tea Party patriots, and soon, the entire state of Arizona was being falsely accused of somehow being accessories to this horrendous, horrendous crime.

That is why I was puzzled, at first, as to why, before facts were even gathered -- why it would be that the mainstream media would start accusing and using such a tragedy for what appeared to be, right off the bat, some political gain.

HANNITY: Yes, I didn't particularly like my profession, what I do for a living, being called a merchant of hate by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. I didn't like it at all, and I responded. And I'm going to get to your choice in responding and all that in just a second.

A lot of these initial stories, Governor, had to do with this map that your PAC had put up during the last campaign, and the fact that Congresswoman Giffords was one of the people on, quote, "the target list," in the crosshairs that were there. What could you tell us about this map? And I'll get into more questions after that.

PALIN: Well, that map wasn't an original graphic. In fact, for many, many years, maps in political races have been used to target certain districts that people would feel that they can get into those districts and find someone whom they believe would represent the constituents' will better than incumbent. And that is what this map represented that we used on my PAC. And the graphic that we used was crosshairs targeting the different districts. And, again, that's not original. In fact, Democrats have been using it for years. In fact, Bob Beckel, I believe that he had bragged on your show, Sean, that he is the one who invented these crosshairs or these targets.

So, you know, that came up right away, that, oh, it must be a cause of this horrendous evil act of this shooter, that perhaps he saw that map and that incited him towards violence, which, of course, is ridiculous. Again, it's not an original use of an icon or a graphic.

HANNITY: Did you or your PAC have this taken off the Website immediately after the shooting? Because that's been bantered about.

PALIN: You know, I believe that someone in the PAC, in fact, the contract graphic artist, did take it down. And I don't think that that was inappropriate. If it was going to cause much heartburn and even more controversy, I didn't have a problem with it being taken down.

But screenshots, of course, have been taken of that. And I don't know if the Democrats have taken down theirs in these ensuing days, but, again, knowing that that had absolutely nothing to do with an apolitical or perhaps even left-leaning criminal who killed these innocents and injured so many, I didn't have a problem with it being taken down if, in fact, it actually has been taken down.