Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee tore into Hillary Clinton Friday for finally coming out against the Keystone XL pipeline.
In his address to the Values Voter Summit, Huckabee lambasted the former secretary of state for her “gut punch” to American workers.
“Because of the Pope’s visit, we have had unleashed on us weapons of mass distraction,” Huckabee said, “because this is a week in which people were only talking about a portion of what the Pope said, rather than talking about the fact that Hillary Clinton conveniently used this week and all fo the news going on to quietly say she would not support the Keystone pipeline. Which is one more gut punch to workers in this country and one more gut punch to consumers in this country.”
Huckabee’s comments come on the heels of his initial response to Clinton’s statement, during which he panned her “sudden opposition” to the bill.
“In America, we should never allow socialists the power to determine our destiny or destroy our economy,” Huckabee said in the statement, adding that Americans shouldn’t be the ones to pay for Keystone “simply because Bernie Sanders is running circles around Hillary Clinton.”
Clinton had refused to offer up an opinion on the pipeline since 2013, having cited her role in the project during her time at the State Department.
“I have come to feel I can’t stay silent on an issue that matters so much to so many,” Clinton said. “Though I wanted to give the president space to make a decision, the process has taken far longer than I expected. I want the American people to know where I stand. That’s why I am making it clear: I am opposed to the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.”
