This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Sarah Palin has made a pitch to be named energy secretary under a Donald Trump presidency, saying: “If I were head of that, I’d get rid of it.”

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The former governor of Alaska and 2008 vice-presidential candidate gave a wide-ranging interview to CNN on Sunday. Now an influential voice in the rightwing media, she has been a vocal supporter of Trump, the billionaire business mogul who leads the 17-strong Republican field for the 2016 presidential nomination.

Asked if she would consider a cabinet position under Trump should he be elected to the White House, Palin said that as “energy is my baby”, she would. She added that her time at the Energy Department would be “a short-term job”.

She also rejected President Obama’s focus on the threat posed by climate change, particularly to her state, saying: “I’m not going to blame … changes in the weather on man’s footprint.”

Asked about her hopes for a job under Trump, Palin said: “I think a lot about the Department of Energy because energy is my baby.

“Oil, gas, minerals, those things God has dumped on this part of the earth for mankind’s use instead of us relying on unfriendly foreign nations for us to import their resources.

“I think a lot about the Department of Energy and if I were head of that I’d get rid of it. I’d let the states start having more control over the lands that are within their boundaries and the people that are affected by the developments within their states.

“If I were in charge of that it would be a short-term job, but it would be really great to have someone who knows energy and is pro-responsible development to be in charge.”

Speaking from Wasilla, Alaska, Palin criticised Obama’s visit to her state this week, in which he spoke at length about the threat posed to its inhabitants by climate change. She did not address criticism of Obama for treating climate change as a central issue of his presidency while allowing drilling for oil in the Arctic circle.

In one speech in Alaska, Obama said “any so-called leader who does not take this issue seriously, or treats it like a joke, is not fit to lead”.

Palin was asked if she took climate change seriously.

“I take changes in the weather, the cyclical changes that the globe has undergone since the beginning of time, I take it seriously,” she said. “But I’m not going to blame those changes in the weather on man’s footprint.

“Obama was up here looking at the glaciers, and pointing out a glacier that was receding. Well, there are other glaciers though that are growing up here. He didn’t highlight that.”

Palin added: “These blames on man’s activity, some of that I know is bogus.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Barack Obama takes a selfie in Alaska. Photograph: White House

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Palin said Obama’s visit to her state was “a tourism jaunt, really”, and criticised the president for his attitude to Russia and China, both of which have increased their military presence near Alaska.

“What if he’d carried a big stick instead of a selfie stick?” she said, referring to some of Obama’s activities during his visit.

Palin also rejected criticism of Trump regarding his answers to questions on middle-eastern policy on a conservative radio show this week, saying she didn’t think the public “gave a flying flip” if a presidential candidate could not tell the difference between Iran’s Quds force and the Kurds.

On immigration, Palin responded to a spat between Trump and Jeb Bush over the former Florida governor’s ability to speak Spanish by saying immigrants to the US should speak English first.

“When you’re here, let’s speak American,” she said.