TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Brad Woodhouse, President, American Bridge 21st Century
RE: Mike Huckabee is the GOP in all its offensive glory
DATE: May 5, 2015
Mike Huckabee represents the extreme majority of the Republican Party in all its offensive glory. After winning the 2008 Iowa caucus and racking up the second most delegates that year, Huckabee is jumping into a crowded GOP primary where candidates are already trying to prove they’re the most conservative. Huckabee will immediately pull the primary even further to the whack job fringes of the Tea Party.
He compared abortion to slavery. He said women “cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government.” And while Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and the rest of the field jumped to support Mike Pence’s religious discrimination law, Huckabee outflanked the pack and said:
When business people you sit in church with every week are told they’re going to pay a fine of $1,000 a day and possibly go to jail because their conscience won’t let them make a wedding cake with two men on the top of the wedding cake.
But when it comes to raising the retirement age and voucherizing Medicare, even Mike Huckabee thinks the GOP is nuts. Huckabee says Republican proposals are “disastrous, not only politically but I think they be disastrous in terms of further breaking the trust between the government and its people.” Wait, what?
The GOP primary just got a whole lot more interesting. We’re sending Advil to Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Scott Walker’s headquarters – they’re going to need it this year.
How Extreme is Mike Huckabee?
Huckabee: “Democrats Want To Insult The Women Of America By Making Them Believe That They Are Helpless Without Uncle Sugar Coming In And Providing Them A Prescription Each Month For Birth Control Because They Cannot Control Their Libido Or Their Reproductive System Without The Help Of The Government.” “Our party stands for the equality of women and the capacity of women. That’s not a war on them. It’s a war for them. And if the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it. Let us take that discussion all across America because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be and women across America need to stand up and say ‘Enough of that nonsense.’” [Mike Huckabee, Republican National Committee Meeting, Washington, DC,1/23/14]
Huckabee Claimed That President Obama Grew Up In Kenya. “”I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, very different than the average American. When he gave the bust back to the Brits, the bust of Winston Churchill, a great insult to the British. But then if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.” [Steve Malzberg Show, 2/28/11]
Mike Huckabee Said If Immigrants “Want To Bring Something Of Their Country To America” Then We “Should Tell Them They Picked The Wrong Place To Come.” “The biggest issue is become how many people should be allowed in and I think we’ve been missing the important one: why are people coming? And if they want to come to help build America, make it a great country, they come because they love America, believe in America, then we’ll find a way. If they come because they want to bring something of their country to America and change us and they don’t really love this country and they don’t want to make it better, then I’m thinking maybe we should tell them they picked the wrong place to come.” [Mike Huckabee Book Signing, Johnson City, TN, 1/26/15; American Bridge Tracking Footage]
Mike Huckabee Criticized Immigrants For Wanting To Make America “More Socialistic” And For Using Languages Other Than English At ATMs. “Here’s the thing I don’t see or hear anybody else saying. I think we are missing something. We keep talking about how many immigrants come. It is not a matter of the numbers, it is a matter of the motive. Here is what I would like to know: Do you want to come here to make America a better place? Is this the country of your choice? … If you do, then we have a very different line for you to get in than those who say, ‘No, I want to change America. I want it to be more socialistic, I want it to give me things for free. I want it to cater to my culture and I want the banks to all have a number where my language can be entered and I can get money withdrawals in the language of my choice.’ I think at that point we say, ‘Appreciate your interest, but we’re probably not the right fit for you,’ ” [Mike Huckabee, Family Foundation Day at the Capitol, Richmond, VA, 1/27/15; American Bridge Tracking Footage]
Mike Huckabee Compared Abortion To Slavery And The “War Of Northern Aggression.” “I believe that every life is made in the image of God and I have no right to disrupt that which He has initiated. It’s not my right, it’s His. I don’t believe I can own another person. I thought we settled that after the Civil War, or as some people in the south used to, still, call it the war of northern aggression. The fact remains, that for some, what Gary said is so very painfully true. There are voices who have told us, please don’t bring those issues up because we want to win elections. So do I, but I want to win them for a cause that’s worth fighting for. [Mike Huckabee, Susan B. Anthony List Gala, Washington, DC, 3/13/14; American Bridge Tracking Footage]
Mike Huckabee Said Most Government Money Goes To Repair People Who Made “Bad Choices In Life.” While speaking at a press conference during the Star Spangled Sunday event in North Carolina, Huckabee remarked, “From having served as a Governor, I saw where our money went. Most of the state budget goes to repair broken people, broken by the fact that bad choices in life have resulted in extraordinary costs and expenses.” [Mike Hukcabee, Star Spangled Sunday, Charlotte, NC, 9/14/14]
Huckabee: “Business People You Sit In Church With Every Week Are Told They’re Going To Pay A Fine Of $1,000 A Day And Possibly Go To Jail Because Their Conscience Won’t Let Them Make A Wedding Cake With Two Men On The Top Of The Wedding Cake.” “I don’t know how many times I meet people who are Christian believers, Good, Godly, bible believing people who say, I just don’t want to get involved in politics…When business people you sit in church with every week are told they’re going to pay a fine of $1,000 a day and possibly go to jail because their conscience won’t let them make a wedding cake with two men on the top of the wedding cake. And when a photographer who took your daughters wedding pictures is forced out of business because she just doesn’t feel comfortable in taking photos of a same sex wedding… Then you’re already involved.” [Mike Huckabee, The Awakening 2015, Orlando, FL, 3/14/15, American Bridge Tracking Footage]
Read the rest of Mike Huckabee’s troubling record in the American Bridge Presidential Scouting Report.
Published: May 5, 2015