During her special appearance on the holiday edition of Breitbart News Daily, former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin talked about her sense of “divine providence” in the 2016 election, and for the first time shared her feelings of disappointment that the religious community didn’t stand up more forcefully for her when she came under sustained attack from the Left in ‘08.

SirusXM host Alex Marlow asked Palin if she thought divine providence played a role in the election outcome.

“No doubt, divine providence played a huge role in this election,” she replied. “I will boldly proclaim that. I saw it first-hand. I was there on the campaign trail. I saw how things were changing. I saw more and more people’s eyes open, and I think so much of that was based on the church in general, those people of faith who were praying to God that people would wake up.”

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“Remember, our Founders dedicated this land, this new country that would be America, this idea of America, dedicated it to God,” she pointed out. “If I were President, I’d re-dedicate us to God. When I was governor I proclaimed that, the state of Alaska, this is yours, Lord. May your will be done here. We need to do that again in America.”

“Prayer warriors across the country, people who perhaps had never expressed their faith in a higher being before, knew that Jeez, we got to be on our knees asking for a change here, because we’re going down the wrong road. I was so grateful to see so many people step up in that realm,” Palin said.

She added a personal note, something she said she’s never talked about in public before: “I was very grateful to see that the church stepped up, because eight years ago, I felt that they didn’t. Besides the attacks on my family and supporters, the most hurtful thing about the election, the vilification, the marginalization, the ridicule that hit us – my family and me, eight years ago – was that I didn’t feel that the church did circle the wagons and step up boldly and say, ‘What? No, that’s not what she’s saying,’ or ‘That’s not what she represents.’ Because some of them knew me.”

“A lot of these famous pastors, and people all over the country, right after the election were sending me their secret confidential little love notes about, ‘Oh, you know, my heart was with ya, and you know if there’s ever anything I can do for you, just let me know, because I believe in you, and I believed in you during the election, I’m so sorry what you went through.’ And would sit there reading this stuff, saying, ‘Well, where were you? Why didn’t you step up? You’re going to have to step up next time, or that next person is going to go down too,” she remembered sadly.

“So yes, thank God. Literally, I’m thanking God that this go-around, enough pastors, enough congregations, enough people who don’t even ever get in the four walls of a church, but know there is greater purpose in our lives and there is a greater being who has everything in His hands — more of the Church stepped up, prayed about this very hard (and they need to keep praying about it). They did their job,” Palin concluded.

She thought it was fair to ask if there should be career consequences for pundits and analysts who got everything wrong in the long prelude to the 2016 election, especially given their enthusiasm to “crucify those who get it right.”

“Let’s just accept that it’s going to go on, and allow then our strength to be made manifest when we realize, okay, they’re going to keep getting it wrong, and they’re going to keep trying to crucify us,” she recommended. “So what? Life’s not fair. There are more of us than there are of them. There really are.”

“They are very vocal, those who want to transform America and take away your freedom of speech. They’re not the majority. The majority of Americans are right on target in where we want to go with liberty and all of our freedoms. So let’s hang on to that, knowing that good, that’s a tool for empowerment right there, is knowing what the numbers are,” she urged.

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Listen to the complete audio of Palin’s interview above.