Lauer, on that subject of credibility, said on air that "no specific promises" were made about the content of the interview, just that it was to be Palin's first live interview after her endorsement of Trump, who likely will win tonight's Iowa caucuses.
Palin said the link the media drew from her comments between the assault charge and President Obama wasn't accurate. "I never blamed President Obama," Palin pushed back.
Instead, she said, she was pointing out the "disrespect" the current commander in chief shows the troops, like not allowing them to get in on the fight with the Islamic State.
"Let's get in there and utterly destroy Isis as we know our United States military can do, yet we have a commander in chief who kind of wants to kowtow and allow the enemy to be poking at us," Palin said.
What she said was that her son, a combat veteran, "was fighting for you all, American, in the war zone. My son, like so many others, came back in a bit different, they come back hardened. They come back wondering if there is that respect for what it is that their fellow soldiers and airman and every other member of the military so sacrificially have given to this country. And that starts from the top. That comes from our own president."
She added: "Where they have to look at him and wonder, 'Do you know what we go through? Do you know what we're trying to do to secure America?'"
Track Palin was arrested on January 18 after allegedly punching his 22-year-old girlfriend in the face during a drunken bout and then threatening to shoot himself with an AR-15 rifle. "Do you think I'm a p---y? and 'do you think I won't do it?" he reportedly shouted as the two argued over her ex-boyfriend.
Track had a 0.189 blood alcohol level according to police.
Track Palin had spent a year deployed to Iraq with the Army's Alaska-based 25th Infantry Division's 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, nicknamed the "Arctic Wolves".
When she did talk about Trump on the Today show, she said the decision to endorse the billionaire and not Texas Senator Ted Cruz was easy. "It wasn't tough," Palin said.
"No, it wasn't tough," she said.
Palin noted how she had supported Cruz in his run for Senate in Texas.
"And when I endorsed him he was barely a blip on the radar screen down there in terms of in the polls and what people were perceiving and then, at the last minute being able to get in there and kind of, hopefully, we helped, you know, added some momentum to his campaign," she said.
But now that Cruz is in the Senate, Palin said she hoped that he stayed put. "I want to keep him in the Senate and I want Donald Trump to be our president," she said.
