President Obama should have reacted to the Dallas attack on law enforcement like Ronald Reagan responded to the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Friday.
Huckabee’s comments come hours after 12 officers were shot — five fatally — during a rally against police brutality in Dallas.
“I think this is a time when real leaders bring people together, he doesn’t split them apart,” the former presidential candidate told “Fox and Friends” when asked what he would do if he were president.
Obama, in a statement from Poland, called the attack “vicious, calculated and despicable.” The president also added that “we also know that when people are armed with powerful weapons, unfortunately it makes it more deadly and more tragic, and in the days ahead we are going to have to consider those realities as well.”
“He doesn’t need to inject very divisive political arguments like gun control … at a time of great grief for the nation,” Huckabee said. “And he ought to do for us what Ronald Reagan did after the Challenger disaster. And that’s remind us of what we have in common, not what separates us. And that’s why I’m always so frustrated. Barack Obama has such great potential to be a leader.”
Obama should be focused on the police officers involved in the Thursday night attack, the sacrifices they make “and solely on the police officers and the sacrifices of their family and leave all of the political discussions aside,” Huckabee said.
“There’s plenty of time for that. Today there’s one thing [that] ought to be on the president’s mind,” he concluded.
The attack in Dallas was the deadliest day for law enforcement since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
