UPDATED–see bottom of article:
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee didn’t attack fellow 2016 GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump over immigration, despite a claim by the Huffington Post that he did.
“I think he made a severe error in saying what he did about Mexican-Americans, and it is unfortunate,” the Huffington Post reported that Huckabee said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.
Huckabee didn’t say that, however. He actually defended Trump. The Huffington Post got it wrong. That particular quote was something former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said on CNN on Saturday, a clip of which State of the Union host Jake Tapper played for Huckabee during the interview with him on Sunday.
“I think he made a severe error in saying what he did about Mexican-Americans,” Romney said of Trump. “And it’s unfortunate.”
Huckabee’s team told Breitbart News they’ve asked the Huffington Post for a correction, but the liberal outlet hasn’t yet changed the clearly incorrectly attributed quote. Video of the Huckabee interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper contained inside the Huffington Post article shows that Huckabee didn’t actually criticize Trump: He admitted the real estate mogul has a point.
Huckabee said that people coming to the United States from foreign countries in Latin America are “some of the hardest-working people … and some of the most conservative, family-oriented and faith-based people I’ve ever witnessed.”
“Are there some people who come with nefarious goals?” he said. “Yes, that’s why we need to secure the border … But I would never besmirch all the people who come here.”
That’s similar to the point Trump made in his presidential campaign announcement speech more than two full weeks ago.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump said then. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems… they’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Earlier in the interview with CNN, Huckabee said when first asked about Trump: “Honestly, Donald Trump needs no help from Mike Huckabee to get publicity. He’s been doing a really good job of that. What I’ve been doing is focusing on what my own views of immigration happen to be rather than weighing in or getting into this battle of are we with Trump or are we against Trump.”
“Look, I’m for some reasonable approaches to immigration that start with a secure border,” Huckabee said.
I’ve committed to getting that done within a year. The reason I say that we can do that, Jake, is that 17 years ago we built a 1,700-mile road from British Columbia to Alaska in less than a year. The fact that people say we can’t secure the border–that’s nonsense. This country can do it if we want to, you just have to have a president that’s committed to doing it.
The timing of attacks on Trump from various establishment Republicans, including Romney, comes more than two weeks after Trump made the comments in his announcement speech, which really raises the question as to why each of these people—if they are so upset with Trump—waited so long to say anything.
Pro-amnesty Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush have also targeted Trump’s comments.
UPDATE:
The Huffington Post has finally issued a correction–and a substantially updated article–after Breitbart News published this piece.
The liberal outlet changed the headline of its incorrect story to read: “CORRECTED: Huckabee Weighs In On Donald Trump’s Controversial Immigrant Comments.” The previous and inaccurate headline was: “Huckabee: Donald Trump Made ‘A Severe Error’ In Mexican Immigrant Comments.”
The Huffington Post also made substantial edits to the copy and completely backed off its previous characterization of Huckabee’s remarks as contrary to Trump’s comments.
“An earlier version of this piece erroneously attributed a quote critical of Donald Trump from Mitt Romney to Mike Huckabee. We apologize for the error,” the new lead of the article reads.
That is significantly different from the previous—and inaccurate—lead of the liberal outlet’s article: “Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Sunday became the latest 2016 Republican presidential hopeful to distance himself from billionaire Donald Trump, following controversial comments Trump made about Mexican immigrants.”
The outlet also dropped all analysis it had made previously suggesting there was daylight between the positions of Huckabee and Trump.
“The initial article reported on an exchange Huckabee had on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ on Sunday,” the rest of the new article reads. “During the show, Huckabee was asked to respond to remarks made by Trump in which he called Mexican immigrants crossing the border ‘rapists,’ among other things. We reported that Huckabee said Trump had made “a severe error in saying what he did about Mexican-Americans.” In fact, he was responding to a quote from Mitt Romney saying that line, and was asked whether he thought that Trump was hurting the Republican brand. ‘I say some things very differently,’ Huckabee replied. ‘I say every night, I get on my knees and thank God I’m in a country that people are trying to break into rather than one they are trying to break out of.’ You can watch the full exchange above.”
The previous article attempted to tie the inaccurately reported Huckabee remarks into the scores of folks from the political establishment—like Rubio, Bush, Romney, Univision, NBC, Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign co-chair and liberal actress Eva Longoria and more. “Trump has been the target of criticism from across the political spectrum ever since he characterized Mexican immigrants as ‘rapists’ who bring ‘drugs and crime’ into the United States during a speech last month announcing that he would run for president in 2016. In the aftermath of the comments, major corporate partners of Trump’s enterprises, like Univision and NBC, have cut ties with the real estate mogul and reality TV star,” the previous article read.
All of that is now gone from the new corrected version of the piece.
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