Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin returned to Fox News Monday as a contributing commentator, bringing a full slate of talking points on Washington scandals involving what she called lies, spies, and a partisan IRS.

"It's a whole ball of wax that all leads to this revelation that government lies," Palin told the crew on "Fox & Friends."

"Unfortunately, and with Benghazi, though, government lied and people died," Palin said. "The other issues are government lied and government spied."



Palin — the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and tea party darling — was incredulous at reports that an IRS employee said she thought "tea party" was shorthand for liberal as well as conservative.

"That is so unbelievable, and it also does not bode well for that individual's intelligence," Palin said. "Why is she working for the IRS if truly she were to believe such a thing, that 'tea party' meant a liberal group?"

On the issue of Edward Snowden's leaked information about the National Security Agency data -collection program, Palin suggested that Americans could benefit from more leaks that illustrate how the government operates.

"I really don't think Snowden is the issue in any of this. I think the issue is government is so large and so intrusive in all aspects of life. We need more revelations, we need more truth about what our administration's doing so that we can hold our government that works for us, to hold them accountable," Palin said.

"It's a foundational message of the tea party grassroots movement, and that is that government is out of hand, it is oppressive, it is intrusive into every aspect of our lives and has grown so large it is unaccountable at this point," she added.

Palin and Fox News parted ways earlier this year. Since then, she's been pursuing other interests, including writing a book on Christmas that she says pushes back on political correctness and includes stories on tradition and family recipes.

Moving forward, Palin will appear regularly on Mondays during "Fox & Friends" and she'll contribute to Fox Business Network, according to a Fox announcement last week.