WASHINGTON -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Monday said he will not apologize for alluding to Nazi death camps to describe the nuclear deal reached with Iran.
"Three times I've been to Auschwitz. When I talked about the oven door, I have stood at that oven door, I know exactly what it looks like," Huckabee said. "I will not apologize and I will not recant because the word Holocaust was invoked by the Iranian government. They used that very word."
Huckabee appeared on Fox News' The Five on Monday afternoon to defend his statement, saying Americans need to take seriously Iran's threats to destroy Israel.
Huckabee told Breitbart News on Saturday that by reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran, President Barack Obama is essentially marching Israelis to "the door of the oven." The comment drew quick condemnation from Obama, Democrats and Jewish groups.
The United States, several other world powers and Iran reached a deal earlier this month that would lift some economic sanctions in exchange for restrictions to Iran's nuclear program. Congress has fewer than 60 days to consider and vote on the measure.
During a televised news conference Monday in Ethiopia, President Obama responded with exasperation, saying candidates are saying outrageous things to get attention rather than have a serious discussion about the deal's merits. He pointed to comments by several candidates, including Huckabee, and mentioned a comparison U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., made on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Thursday morning about Secretary of State John Kerry.
"The particular comments of Mr. Huckabee are just part of a general pattern we've seen that would be considered ridiculous if it weren't so sad," Obama said. "I mean, we've had a sitting senator call John Kerry "Pontius Pilate." We had a sitting senator who also happens to be running for president suggesting that I'm the leading state sponsor of terrorism. These are leaders in the Republican Party." The latter reference was to Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican.
Huckabee responded with a news release that included references to Iranian leaders talking about destroying Israel.
"What's 'ridiculous and sad' is that President Obama does not take Iran's repeated threats seriously," Huckabee said in the news release. "For decades, Iranian leaders have pledged to 'destroy,' 'annihilate,' and 'wipe Israel off the map' with a 'big Holocaust.'"
Huckabee has long been an outspoken supporter of Israel and has visited the Middle Eastern country repeatedly in the past four decades. He is a vocal critic of the nuclear deal.
In his campaign kickoff in his hometown of Hope in May, Huckabee said that if he is elected president, "the ayatollahs of Iran will know that hell will freeze over before they get a nuclear weapon." Two weeks ago, Huckabee's campaign released an ad critical of the deal using footage from a 1964 Lyndon Johnson campaign commercial of a young girl plucking petals from a daisy before a nuclear explosion.
"'Never again' will be the policy of my administration and I will stand with our ally Israel to prevent the terrorists in Tehran from achieving their own stated goal of another Holocaust," Huckabee said in Monday's statement.
Democrats and Jewish organizations jumped to criticize the comparison.
At an event in Iowa, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Huckabee's comments "inflammatory," several media outlets reported.
"I know Gov. Huckabee. I have a cordial relationship with him. He served as governor of Arkansas, but I find this kind of inflammatory rhetoric totally unacceptable," she said.
Huckabee responded to Clinton's criticism in a statement questioning why she isn't outraged at Iranian leaders calling for the destruction of Israel.
"How many murdered Israelis will it take for Hillary to express as much outrage at Iran as she did at my defense of Israel? " he said.
Anti-Defamation League National Director Jonathan Greenblatt issued a statement saying Huckabee's comparison was out of line.
"Whatever one's views of the nuclear agreement with Iran -- and we have been critical of it, noting that there are serious unanswered questions that need to be addressed -- comments such as those by Mike Huckabee suggesting the president is leading Israel to another Holocaust are completely out of line and unacceptable," he said.
In a news release, the National Jewish Democratic Council, a group of Jewish Democrats, asked other Republican candidates to denounce Huckabee's comments.
"Far, far too often, this organization has found itself forced to denounce politicians for invoking the Holocaust in inappropriate and offensive ways," it said. "These comments by Gov. Mike Huckabee, however, may be the most inexcusable we've encountered in recent memory."
In the Fox interview, Huckabee said the Anti-Defamation League "condemn[s] a lot of things people say" and Democratic Jewish groups are criticizing him for political reasons.
"If we're on the verge of repeating it again with a nation that is threatening to do that very thing, how do we not bring up that language?" Huckabee said. "At what point when a gun is pointed at your head do you not take that seriously?"
Two Republicans seeking the nomination were divided in their response. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Republicans need to tone down the rhetoric if they want to win back the White House.
"This is not the way we're going to win elections and that's not how we're going to solve problems. So, unfortunate remark -- not quite sure why he felt compelled to say it," Bush told reporters at a campaign stop.
Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania said on Fox Radio's The John Gibson Show that Huckabee is "absolutely right."
Huckabee's comments drew broad attention Monday. According to Topsy, a website that tracks responses on social media, his name was referred to on Twitter more than 50,000 times Monday. Thousands of people commented on his Facebook page and shared his posts defending the original comment.
With so much national attention focused recently on Donald Trump, Huckabee probably appreciates the media attention, said Greg Shufeldt, an assistant political science professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
"Comparing the Iran deal to the Holocaust is probably a step more than what other candidates are doing, but it's getting him in the news," Shufeldt said. "I'm sure it's frustrating for a candidate like Gov. Huckabee or several of the other candidates who are governors, senators, representatives, to be dwarfed in terms of press coverage, in terms of national polls to someone that doesn't have any political experience."
Metro on 07/28/2015