Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee defended President Trump’s response to the coronavirus by taking a dig at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“The president’s doing exactly the right thing. I expect he’ll be criticized by the same people who criticize him for everything,” Huckabee said Wednesday on Fox & Friends. “But they’re going to criticize Donald Trump even if he personally restocked Nancy Pelosi $24,000 freezer with the finest ice cream that’s ever been created.”
Huckabee continued his joke: “They’ll still say he didn’t pick the right flavors, and he didn’t bring hot fudge sauce.”
The former governor of Arkansas was referring to a video clip of Pelosi showing off a stock of ice cream in a refrigerator that is estimated to cost tens of thousands of dollars during an interview on late-night television.
Pelosi’s critics seized on the video, suggesting it was a tone-deaf display of privilege while thousands of U.S. citizens go without work and line up at food banks amid the coronavirus pandemic and its resulting economic crisis.
The Trump campaign used the clip in a recent campaign ad, making fun of the House speaker by calling her “Nancy Antoinette.”
“Americans are losing their jobs since the virus rocked the economy. Nancy Pelosi blocks funding for people to keep getting paychecks. But she’s got a $24K fridge full of ice cream, so she’s cool,” Trump’s campaign manager said.
Huckabee was asked about Trump’s decision this week to place a 60-day halt on all immigration to the United States, which the president said is necessary out of “the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens.”
“He has got to do what he’s doing for America and for American workers,” Huckabee said. “He’s doing that it doesn’t mean people can’t come into the country as tourists. We would love to have some tourists when things open up but not as workers. We have Americans that need jobs right now. It’s pretty simple.”
Pelosi has not made public comments on Trump’s new ban but called the president’s move to end all travel to the U.S. from China by foreign nationals in late January “outrageous.”
“America’s strength has always been as a beacon of hope and opportunity for people around the world, whose dreams and aspirations have enriched our nation and made America more American,” she said in a statement. “With this latest callous decision, the President has doubled down on his cruelty and further undermined our global leadership, our Constitution and our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants.”
