This is a rush transcript from "Your World," September 6, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: We have got Mike Huckabee here, and the governor says it may not be as simple as that.
What happens now, Governor?
MIKE HUCKABEE, R-FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: I think the president has put himself in the box, although the one out he has is that he has now tossed this to Congress.
So when Congress votes no, which I think they're going to do, because...
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: Do you really?
HUCKABEE: I really do.
I have never seen the intensity. I talked to congressmen today on my radio show who said it's 98 percent against, and it's not mild, and they're getting more calls on this than they got on immigration. So that tells you the intensity.
So, I don't know how it can pass, except that there's a lot of muscle being given by the K Street people, because there's a lot of money to be made if we go into Syria. And then so let's just go ahead and throw aside the cynicism here, but that's one of the factors, the only reason that it has a chance of passing.
But I do think...
CAVUTO: But what if it doesn't pass, to your point, and he goes ahead on his own?
HUCKABEE: I don't think he goes on his own.
CAVUTO: No, you don't?
HUCKABEE: I think that's his out.
That's his out.
CAVUTO: You don't think he's serious about this?
HUCKABEE: That's his ability to say I tried, I really wanted to do it, but I couldn't because I couldn't get the United Nations to go with me, I couldn't get my Congress to go with me, so I'm the moral giant who tried to do something, but it's Congress' fault.
Now he has got one more thing to beat up Congress about.
CAVUTO: All right, so what does this do with relations and all this other stuff that they have to do, like the budget, like an approaching debt limit ceiling, like this whole issue of health care, whether it's to fund it, whether it's slowed down? You know the whole score.
HUCKABEE: He gets a little bit of credit for having at least gone to Congress, but he loses it if he then turns around and blames them for doing what they were elected to do, which is listening to their bosses, the people who sent them there.
CAVUTO: But what if those -- these delays with Syria, and talking about it, voting on it, debating it, wouldn't that also give him cover to say, now is not the time to be dithering with the budget, now is not the time to be holding the government up for a potential shutdown? In a way, wouldn't it work to his advantage?
HUCKABEE: Well, I think this is a wag the dog situation, without a doubt, where -- I'm not saying he created this situation in Syria. I'm not going that far.
CAVUTO: Right.
HUCKABEE: But I do think that, as Rahm Emanuel would have told him, never let a crisis go to waste. And he's not.
And he's utilizing the crisis. You know what we're talking about all week? We're talking about Syria. Are we talking about the economy? Well, you have already heard no. Are we talking about ObamaCare kicking and killing a lot of people's jobs? No.
What are we talking about? We're talking about Syria, not the things that are bread and butter issues, but people know it's tied to it. And we get into Syria and have another protracted involvement and it's going to hurt their bottom line and they can't see if the rest of the world isn't ready to go in, then they can't understand why America would go it alone.
CAVUTO: By the way, Governor, I love you dearly, but on Fox Business, we talk about the economy.
HUCKABEE: Excuse me. I will try to always remember that.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: That's OK.
And that's why I'm asking you this next question.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: Are you running for president in 2016?
HUCKABEE: You know, I was asked that question, and I just said, I haven't ruled anything out because the only reason that I would is because, with Neil Cavuto as Treasury secretary, it's an incredible opportunity to jump-start and get the economy back.
CAVUTO: How much money do you keep if you sign your name on the currency?
HUCKABEE: You keep none of it.
CAVUTO: Like two for the people, one for me, two for the people, one for me? No?
HUCKABEE: Well, you could try that, but you are probably going to be doing...
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: President Huckabee would not like it.
HUCKABEE: Yes, 20 to 30, and you will...
CAVUTO: I kid you, Governor, but you won Iowa. I mean, you exploded on the scene.
HUCKABEE: Well, and a few other states, yes.
CAVUTO: Yes, you did OK. And you could make a credible argument for a credible run.
HUCKABEE: Well, let me tell you my concern.
I think the Republicans are going to have to start connecting to blue- collar, middle-class workers. We have done a fairly decent job of talking to the entrepreneurs. And that's important. But until we connect to the people who make the entrepreneurs successful by their hard work and tie that together, that's one of the issues we have got to find a way to surface.
CAVUTO: All right, you make some very compelling cases, not so much for Fox Business, but that's OK.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: You can catch his fine show, whatever, this weekend.
It's a hit, but whatever. Just -- I hope he just runs for something so he gets out of competing with us.
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