Des Moines
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and the super PAC backing him have hammered Ted Cruz over the fact that the Texas senator has not given 10 percent of his income to charity, but Huckabee declined on Monday to cast any judgment on Donald Trump’s admission that he’s never asked God for forgiveness.
Asked if Christians should be concerned about Trump’s statement and whether a person can even be a Christian without asking for God’s forgiveness, Huckabee, a former Christian pastor, replied: “I’m going to leave that to God and Donald Trump. I’m not God.”
Although he declined to comment on whether it’s possible to be a Christian while rejecting this central tenet of the faith, Huckabee and his team have had very harsh words for Christians who don’t tithe.
In an ad produced by the super PAC supporting Huckabee, a woman suggests that Ted Cruz is a “phony” Christian because he doesn’t give enough money to charity.
“I also heard that Cruz gives less than one percent to charity and church,” says one woman.
“He doesn’t tithe? A millionaire that brags about his faith all the time?” asks another.
“Just what we need: another phony,” the first replies.
When asked about the ad, Huckabee said: “On a spiritual level, it’s really hard to say that God is first in my life if he’s last in my budget.” This attack may be one reason Cruz’s support has declined among evangelical Christians in Iowa.
Donald Trump hasn’t released his tax returns, but the billionaire’s charitable foundation gave more money to the Clinton Foundation (at least $100,000) than to veterans groups ($57,000) from 2009 to 2013. The Smoking Gun has called Trump “The .00013% Man,” referring to the percentage of his wealth that the foundation had donated one year. Huckabee hasn’t criticized Trump’s charitable giving and appeared with Trump at a fundraiser for veterans that the GOP frontrunner held instead of attending the last GOP debate. Huckabee has also defended Trump’s flip-flop on the issue of late-term abortion.
Here’s the transcript of the brief exchange Huckabee had with THE WEEKLY STANDARD after he stepped outside a diner in Des Moines:
Last June, Trump was asked by pollster Frank Luntz if he’d ever asked God for forgiveness.
“I’m not sure I have. I just go and try to do a better job from there. I don’t think so,” Trump said. “If I do something wrong, I think I just try and make it right. I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t. When we go to church and I drink my little wine, which is about the only wine I drink, and have my little cracker, I guess that’s a form of asking for forgiveness.”
