Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee stated “You don’t negotiate with people, especially a pyromaniac who’s standing there with a can of gasoline and a book of matches in his hand, and expect him not to start a fire” during a discussion of Iran on Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.”
Huckabee said [relevant remarks begin around 1:39] that President Obama “needs to be listening to [Sen.] Schumer (D-NY). He needs to be listening to people who have clearly understood what the Iranian government is about for the past 36 years. He ought to listen to common sense, all of which would tell him you can’t trust people who, for 36 years, have killed Americans, kidnapped Americans, broken every deal they’d ever made, continue, even in the midst of negotiations, to say we’ll wipe Israel off the face of the map and then we’re going to bring death to America. These are crazy people. You don’t negotiate with people, especially a pyromaniac who’s standing there with a can of gasoline and a book of matches in his hand, and expect him not to start a fire.”
Huckabee added, “I’ve never seen a chief executive function in a way that if he doesn’t get his way, he just goes and wants to destroy everyone who disagrees with him. There comes a point — and as governor for 10 1/2 years, you learn, come, let us reason together. It means you do your negotiation in private, secret, quiet, thoughtful meetings, and you find out you’re not always right. Sometimes the opposition is there for a purpose. Our founders had a great idea, it was called governing with three branches of government with checks and balances. This president thinks he was anointed king. I don’t know where his crown is, but this is frustrating, because Chuck Schumer is an honorable guy when it comes to issues in the Middle East, nobody is a more staunch supporter of Israel. I — and I know this was painful for Schumer because he would like to be a good party guy and go along, but what Chuck Schumer did was significant, because it’s an act of statesmanship, not an act of blind partisanship, and God knows we need some more of that in Washington right now.”
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