During an interview on Wednesday’s Good Morning America to discuss his newly formed presidential campaign, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee hilariously told George Stephanopoulos, former communication director for Bill Clinton, how he is best suited to defeat the “Clinton machine.”
Huckabee told the GMA co-host “as you well know from having worked for them, the Clintons know how to win and they play to win. They play hard. They answer every attack immediately and vociferously.”
Stephanopoulos never mentioned his former ties to Bill Clinton before he asked Huckabee “[l]ike Bill Clinton, you were born in Hope, Arkansas, that’s where you announced yesterday. And we looked at your website and you have this t-shirt you’re selling right now: “defeat the Clinton machine.” What do you know about challenging the Clintons that others may not?”
After Huckabee reminded the GMA audience of Stephanopoulos’ ties to the Clintons, the former Arkansas governor explained that they “don't hold anything back. When I ran in Arkansas, I ran against what had been built up as really a Clinton machine. I mean, they owned the politics of the state.”
The ABC host tried to push back against Huckabee’s claim that he took on the “Clinton machine” because “they had gone to Washington by the time you were there” but the Republican strongly rejected the liberal journalist’s defense of his former boss:
They had gone to Washington but people forget that Bill Clinton had been governor for 12 years. All of those appointees, everybody in state government, he had either hired them or he had appointed them. And so I inherited this extraordinary challenge of a Democratic legislature that was 90% Democrat.
The most lopsided in all of America. More than Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, California, and Oregon. And so I walk into that environment, but I was able to get things done because I learned how to govern in a difficult environment.
Stephanopoulos rarely informs his daily Good Morning America audience about his deep ties to the Clintons and his younger viewers likely have no idea that he worked in the White House for the entirety of Bill Clinton’s first term as president.
Kudos for Huckabee for not only reminding ABC’s viewers of this important fact but for actually telling Stephanopoulos to his face how he plans to beat the infamous “Clinton machine” in 2016.
See relevant transcript below.
ABC’s Good Morning America
May 6, 2015
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I’m here now with the latest official candidate for president, Mike Huckabee. Former governor of Arkansas. Baptist preacher who plays the bass. Announced yesterday in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas. A speech filled with some folksy shots at his rivals. Take a look.
MIKE HUCKABEE: I don't have a global foundation or a taxpayer funded paycheck to live off of. I don't come from a family dynasty but a working family. I grew up blue collar, not blue blood.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And Governor Mike Huckabee joins us now. Okay, family foundation, Hillary. Blue blood, I guess that was Jeb Bush. And the speech was filled with some shots at the senators running as well. You're not going to hold anything back this time.
HUCKABEE: Well, it's not that I'm going after anybody, I'm speaking the obvious. If a person has a job that the taxpayers are paying for, shouldn’t that person do that job? And if they're not going to do the job and show up for work, do you get to get paid for not showing up for work?
STEPHANOPOULOS: No I do not.
HUCKABEE: I don’t think so. Why should a person getting paid by the taxpayers continue to get paid if they don’t show up for work?
STEPHANOPOULOS: So that’s all the senators running right now. You’re saying they should just do one or the other?
HUCKABEE: I think people have to choose. I mean, I just believe it's a matter of integrity to say, I don't want this job that I just got elected to. I think I want a different job. Okay, then resign the job you want, or the job you have, and go out there and seek the one you want.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You ran for president back in 2008. Won Iowa.
HUCKABEE: Thanks for reminding me. I remember how that turned out.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you passed in 2012. Why run now, not then?
HUCKABEE: I think I'm better prepared organizationally. I think I'm better prepared in terms of national recognition. And, in 2012, I really thought George, it was going to be much more difficult to defeat a sitting president than a lot of Republicans thought. And I did not see that the Republicans had geared up with the right message and I thought that there was going to be the normal free for all with all the money going to sort of the predicted candidates. And it just wasn't the right time for me.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You mentioned organization. Last time around as I said, you won Iowa, shined in the debates. But the rap on you was you couldn't raise money and you couldn't build a national organization. Have you fixed that?
HUCKABEE: I think we have. We have a national organization. We have an extraordinarily talented team of people who are running this campaign. We have people who have real experience behind them in presidential campaigns, national campaigns. But I think more than anything I go into this not as that unknown governor from Arkansas that people had never heard of.
That I had to do something on the stage at the debate just to get attention. Because I was getting two minutes to the 15 minutes that McCain, Romney, and Giuliani were getting back in the early days of the campaign. Now people, I feel like, have a different perspective. They know me for what I have said. What I have talked about now on television and radio and written in books and it's a very different environment for me than it was before.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Like Bill Clinton, you were born in Hope, Arkansas, that’s where you announced yesterday. And we looked at your website and you have this t-shirt you’re selling right now: “defeat the Clinton machine.” What do you know about challenging the Clintons that others may not?
HUCKABEE: Well first of all, as you well know from having worked for them, the Clintons know how to win and they play to win. They play hard. They answer every attack immediately and vociferously. They don't hold anything back. When I ran in Arkansas, I ran against what had been built up as really a Clinton machine. I mean, they owned the politics of the state.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Even though they had gone to Washington by the time you were there.
HUCKABEE: They had gone to Washington but people forget that Bill Clinton had been governor for 12 years. All of those appointees, everybody in state government, he had either hired them or he had appointed them. And so I inherited this extraordinary challenge of a Democratic legislature that was 90% Democrat. The most lopsided in all of America. More than Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, California, and Oregon. And so I walk into that environment, but I was able to get things done because I learned how to govern in a difficult environment.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We will be watching this campaign. Governor Huckabee thanks very much.
HUCKABEE: Thank you, George.
