Mike Huckabee doesn’t think calling Beyonce “vulgar” is criticizing her–it’s just “making observations.”
On Tuesday’s “Kelly File,” NRO’s Katherine Timpf asked Huckabee to comment on his penchant for dissing Beyonce and calling women who curse at work “trashy.”
“In trying to appeal to your evangelical base, you’ve very openly criticized a lot people in other groups–like same-sex marriage supporters, atheists, women who swear at work, people who let their kids listen to Beyonce…do you worry about being able to win a national election having criticized all these people?” she asked.
“Well first of all, I don’t know that I’m criticizing people, I’m making observations about the culture,” Huckabee replied. “If people want to have a different view than mine I welcome that.”
He also claimed that he and Megyn Kelly “have had a lot of fun talking about the swearing.” Kelly once teased Huckabee about this on her show, informing him, “I do have some news for you …We are not only swearing. We’re drinking, we’re smoking, we’re having premarital sex, we have birth control before we go to work, and sometimes boss around a bunch of men.”
What Huckabee deems “observations,” however, are fairly harsh–in his book “God, Guns, Grits and Gravy” he called Beyonce’s lyrics “obnoxious and toxic mental poison” and her performances “best left for the privacy of her bedroom.” He has speculated that Jay Z “is arguably crossing the line from husband to pimp by exploiting his wife as a sex object.” He also called Miley Cyrus’ VMA performance “disgustingly pornographic.”
Even in his semi-apologies to Beyonce he included a few digs–on the Daily Show he called her a “mega-talent” but maintained that “she does not have to…be vulgar in order to set a trend.”
And as for women who swear at work–“That’s just trashy!”
Although past polls have found Huckabee well-liked as a candidate, a recent WSJ/NBC poll found that Americans are more comfortable with the prospect of a gay president than an evangelical one.
It seems Timpf, at least, was not buying Huckabee’s answer.
The fact that Huckabee claimed to not criticize is outrageous. Pretty sure “trashy” is a criticism, no? @tstockmaes
— Katherine Timpf (@KatTimpf) May 6, 2015
Watch the clip below, with the relevant portion beginning around 10 minutes in:
