Sarah Palin said Monday night that she used the term "blood libel" to describe false claims made against outspoken conservatives like herself who were accused of having blood on their hands in the aftermath of the deadly shootings in Arizona.
Palin was criticized by some Jewish groups for employing the highly charged words that historically have referred to a false rationalization for anti-Semitism -- that Jews used Christian blood in some rituals.
"I think the critics again were using anything that they could gather out of that statement," Palin said on the Fox News Channel's "Hannity" show. "You can spin up anything out of anybody's statements that are released and use them against the person who is making the statement." Palin made the "blood libel" remark in a video that she put out to defend herself and other conservatives against claims that their inflammatory rhetoric -- and in her case, a map showing targeted Democratic congressional districts in cross-hairs -- contributed to the shooting rampage that left six dead in Tucson last week.
"They can't make us sit down and shut up," she said.
