Mike Huckabee slams 'outrageous' Iran agreement
Republican presidential candidate on 'Your World'
This is a rush transcript from "Your World," August 11, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: When I hear a senator or a congressman stand up and say, well, we should get a better deal, let's stop and negotiate and go get a better deal, that is not going to happen. There isn't a -- quote -- "better deal" to be gotten.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: All right, that's what John Kerry was saying.
Then he should listen to some Democratic senators, including, well, the guy in New York who says, you know what, then just scrap this deal. Better no deal than this deal.
And that is raising concerns that maybe the administration isn't getting it, because this is going to be a bipartisan rant against a deal that just ain't cutting it.
Mike Huckabee among those who says it's not worth it. The GOP presidential candidate in Iowa right now.
Governor, good to have you.
You always hear that, right, Governor? There is no alternative. This is the only thing out there. The alternative is likely war.
You say what?
MIKE HUCKABEE, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I was very offended by the president's speech in which he presents it as if he's got the only deal there could possibly be. And if you don't like his deal, then you're a warmonger.
Neil, that's nonsense. He himself has said for the past several years that no deal is better than a bad deal. Well, he should have really practiced that, because this is a bad deal. I have read it. Obviously, Chuck Schumer has read it. People who have looked at this realized that what we ended up doing was giving away the whole store to the Iranian government.
We got nothing out of this. They're going to have a nuclear weapon, albeit delayed maybe a couple of years, but they're going to go nuclear and we are going to make the world a much more dangerous place. We didn't even get them to shut their traps up when it comes to saying death to America and we will wipe Israel off the face of the map.
CAVUTO: Governor, the one thing that is interesting about when you oppose the president, particularly in his own party, there is hell to pay. A lot of snickers and all about -- certainly, Chuck Schumer has been as loyal an ally to the White House as you could get, a future Democratic leader in the Senate to take Mitch McConnell's (sic) place.
And you have David Plouffe and some of these others saying, you know, well, he's essentially, you know, not our guy. He's not in keeping with that tradition.
What do you make of that?
HUCKABEE: Well, let's give credit where credit is due to Chuck Schumer.
I think he acted with statesmanship, instead of the blind partisanship that we would have seen out of people like Harry Reid. And I'm grateful for Chuck Schumer. Look, this had to be a painful, difficult decision. He wants to go along with his president. He wants to go along with his party.
But there came a point at which he looked at this deal, as a lot of people have honestly, and realized it's just not good for America. And Chuck Schumer acted not in the best interest of his own political life. He acted in the best interest of America. And I salute him for that.
Not a lot of things Chuck Schumer and I might agree on, but on this I commend him and I'm grateful. And I hope more Democrats will start realizing, look, I have been not elected to make Barack Obama look good. I have been elected to protect America, and this deal doesn't protect America.
CAVUTO: There is a sort of a sinister subtext to the Schumer deal, to reject this deal, in that he knew that, even with his no-vote, the votes are not there to override an expected presidential veto, so it's sort of his way to have his cake and eat it too.
What do you make of that and this is all really just Kabuki theater, the president is going to get what he wants, John Kerry gets what he wants, and guys like Mike Huckabee can just stick it?
HUCKABEE: You know, it doesn't really matter what I want.
What matters is, does this make the world safer for my five grandkids? And it doesn't. It makes it much more dangerous. It puts the whole Middle East into a nuclear arms race. It creates a situation in which we embolden and enrich the Iranians, which is a state sponsor of terror.
The $150 billion they get, do we honestly think they're going to do anything other than go out and buy a bunch of conventional weapons from the Russians? And the people that they have killed, Americans, they have kidnapped and murdered, they will now have the resources to do it even more. This is a foolish deal. And the things that we said we would make as criteria...
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: I'm sorry, sir. But people pounce on that and say, boy, that's fine and mighty of a lot of Republicans who were all for, gung- hospital the Iraq War that got us into a big old mess, and now rejecting an agreement that could at least lessen the likelihood of that mess.
What do you say to that?
HUCKABEE: Well, I think people are being a bit foolhardy if they try to say that this is like the Iraq War.
The Iranians have specifically threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the map. They have consistently funded terrorism through Hamas and Hezbollah. Even as we're negotiating this deal, they're chanting death to America.
And I think, at some point, if a person has a gun pointed to your head and is absolutely promising that he's going to squeeze the trigger, maybe at some point you ought to take that seriously so your head doesn't get blown off. I just think this is a foolhardy deal.
And, Neil, the biggest single thing, we said we would have inspections anywhere any time. That's not in the deal. They get 24 days to go hide their stuff and we have to ask permission to come in. This was a violation of even the things that John Kerry and Secretary Moniz and the president all said had to be part of the deal. They meant none of that.
And we still have four American hostages sitting in Iranian prisons. They didn't even get an air ticket home out of this, the whole thing. It's really outrageous.
CAVUTO: Real quickly, if you don't mind my dipping into politics here, new surveys posted today, you're still in that top 10. You're in ninth. You didn't get much of a bump from that debate. These things don't necessarily translate into anything better than a headline for the day, Governor.
But are you worried that you're not able to break out, that Donald Trump may have tested his popularity a little bit because when the audience or the number of players is limited, he seems to suffer a little bit more. But are you worried that you just can't get your word in there?
HUCKABEE: Well, not at all.
In fact, the Reuters poll today has me tied for third. So, you know, you can pick some poll and I'm way back down, but the Reuters poll say I'm third. Frank Luntz's study group right after the debate, people who actually watched it and didn't just listen to what media people said and believe what media people said who won, who lost...
CAVUTO: I hate media people. I hate them. I will never talk to them again. I can't believe...
HUCKABEE: You know?
CAVUTO: Yes.
HUCKABEE: And there's a good -- there's a good reason you shouldn't believe them. But here's my point. Frank Luntz's group said that I won the debate afterwards. They were praising me, said I changed a lot of minds, that my answers knocked the meter off the top of the charts.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: But Frank also said you gave each of them 50 bucks. He said -- I don't know if that's true or not, but...
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: No.
HUCKABEE: No. It was $75, Neil.
(CROSSTALK)
HUCKABEE: ... got 75 bucks out of it.
CAVUTO: I kid.
Governor, always a pleasure talking to you, sir. Thank you very, very much, Mike Huckabee.
Boy, he did have a heck of a closing statement. That zinger I thought was at Trump, and it was actually talking about Hillary. That was very funny. All right.
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