Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 190
Trump Is Everywhere
Mike Huckabee told Fox News that GOP senators appear to be “on the pathway to making some major blunders” with their health care measure.
Said Huckabee: “Something that is worse than not getting it down quickly is getting it down wrong.”
He added: “I think Republicans are going to have to suck it up and say, “This isn’t going to get a lot cheaper, it can’t, it won’t.'”
“A beheading is worse than a sunburn.”
— Mike Huckabee, in an interview on Fox News, touting President Trump’s priorities as combating terrorism ahead of addressing climate change.
Mike Huckabee warned Presidential-elect Donald Trump against picking Mitt Romney to be his secretary of State, saying it would be an insult to his voters, The Hill reports.
Said Huckabee: “There’s only one way that Mitt Romney can be considered for a post like that, and that is if he goes to a mic in a very public place and repudiates everything he said in that famous Salt Lake City speech and everything he said after that — Donald Trump wasn’t fit, that he lacked character.””
Mike Huckabee pounced on Bill Clinton’s mistaken pronouncement of his wife’s condition as the “flu” rather than the diagnosed case of pneumonia, suggesting that there is a “cover-up” about the Democratic nominee’s health similar to the concealment operation that doomed the presidency of Richard Nixon, Politico reports.
Said Huckabee: “The fact he called it the flu when the reality is her own doctor said it was pneumonia, does it matter? Here’s what matters. What matters is the cover-up. There is an old saying in politics, it’s not the crime that’ll do you in, it’s the cover-up. That’s what did in Nixon, and I think it’s what’s gonna do in Hillary Clinton.”
Mike Huckabee: “To pretend that Trump is being heavy-handed by saying that those who don’t endorse him won’t speak is not only unfair, it also misses the bigger story: Why aren’t we talking about the outright lie told by a number of my fellow GOP presidential contenders on national television during the very first debate in August of 2015?”
“We were asked point blank if we would support the eventual nominee who survived the primary process and won the nomination. And we all said ‘yes’ except for Trump, who declared that he wanted to make sure he was treated ‘fairly.’ Not long after, Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, went to Trump’s New York office and extracted from him a pledge that he would also support the nominee of the party.”
Mike Huckabee is paying $25,000 for playing “Eye of the Tiger” at a rally last year without the band’s permission, CNN reports.
Mike Huckabee says prominent conservatives who don’t back Donald Trump are not Republicans and should leave the party, BuzzFeed reports.
Said Huckabee: “I’m frustrated because we have a party, we have an election, not a selection. It’s not a back room bunch of good old boys who get to make the decision. We respect the voters.”
“I’m not sure what they’re smoking over there in the Clinton camp. Everybody said Donald Trump wouldn’t come, they said he couldn’t get past August or the early controversies… well, he’s outlasted all of us and I think they’re gonna underestimate Donald Trump’s candidacy at their own peril.”
— Mike Huckabee, quoted by Politico, after assertions by the Clinton campaign that Trump couldn’t win a general election.
BuzzFeed: “Since dropping out, Huckabee hasn’t officially endorsed Trump, but that’s mainly because doing so would complicate his efforts to get a new contract at Fox News, according to two sources familiar with the situation. The conservative network, where Huckabee hosted a weekly talk show for several years before leaving to run for president, strongly disapproves on-air talent supporting political candidates, and Fox’s relationship with Trump has been especially combative this campaign season.”
“Does anybody think Donald Trump is a racist? I don’t. I mean, I really don’t. I don’t know of anything in his life that indicates that this man has racist tendencies.”
— Mike Huckabee, in an interview on Morning Joe.
Mike Huckabee “is no longer running for president, but he is still criticizing Ted Cruz — this time attacking Cruz’s campaign for spreading a report on the night of the Iowa caucuses suggesting Ben Carson would be dropping out of the presidential race,” BuzzFeed reports.
Said Huckabee: “I can attest to the fact that even in our campaign there were many efforts to try and say that people shouldn’t vote for me or Rick Santorum or Ben Carson. The Cruz people said it would be a wasted vote and they should vote for Cruz. It wouldn’t have made a difference for any of use but it is the kind of low-life, sleazy politics people truly get sick of.”
Mike Huckabee says if he’s not the Republican nominee, he will likely support front-runner Donald Trump before other candidates in the race, BuzzFeed reports.
Said Huckabee: “I admire him, I think frankly there’s a more readiness on my part if I don’t make it I’d support him before a lot of people. Because at least with him there’s an authenticity. And you know, he may say some bold things, but he deep down knows that if were the president he’d have to surround himself with people who fill in blanks for him and I respect that.”
Mike Huckabee said that evangelical groups won’t support his presidential campaign out of fear they would no longer be able to fundraise if Christian policies were actually put in place, BuzzFeed reports.
Said Huckabee: “A lot of these organizations wouldn’t have the ability to do urgent fundraising because if we slay the dragon, what dragon do they continue to fight? And so, for many of them, it could be a real detriment to their organization’s abilities to gin up their supporters and raise the contributions, and I know that sounds cynical but… it’s just, it is what it is.”
“When it comes to Donald Trump’s threat to go after Bill Clinton as the former president ramps up campaigning for his wife’s bid, Mike Huckabee is all in on his Republican rival,” Politico reports.
Said Huckabee: “Look, nothing’s backfired on Donald Trump yet. I’d put my money on him. Frankly, he’s played the whole media game like a kid on Christmas morning with a toy drum. He’s beaten the heck out of them, and I honestly don’t think that this is going to hurt Donald Trump … and I think the Clintons have some vulnerability here.”
Mike Huckabee said that the Republican Party is at risk of losing its members if lawmakers continue to make decisions that ignore their values, The Hill reports.
Said Huckabee: “You sense it on the campaign trail. One of the things you see is a seething rage… The Republicans folded. That’s why people in the Republican Party are just bolting for the door.”
Mike Huckabee — who’s been a long-shot candidate relegated to the undercard primary debates — said if he doesn’t finish in the top three in Iowa, he’ll end his campaign, Politico reports.
Said Huckabee: “If we can’t come within striking distance of the victory or win it, then I think we recognize that it’s going to be hard to take that onto the other states.”
“Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign, struggling with its low standing in the polls and underwhelming fundraising, slashed the salaries of senior staffers amid the departure of its top communications aide,” Politico reports.
Mike Huckabee “says that losing his top spokeswoman isn’t a sign of things to come, and he’s still all in on the 2016 campaign,” Politico reports.
Said Huckabee: “We hate to lose Alice, but she’s decided that — she’s I think, exhausted from the campaign. We’re moving forward … If people try to read more into it than is there, they’re going to be making a huge mistake.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
More about Taegan Goddard →