The president is "hell bent" on trying to make a deal with the Iranians on that country's nuclear capabilities so he will "leave something of a legacy other than a completely botched Obamacare," former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told
Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
"The president is really not looking at the long-term consequences and it's not only the immediate reality of Iran having nuclear capacity, it's what happens to the rest of the Middle East," Huckabee said in an interview with J.D. Hayworth, Miranda Khan and Larry Elder on "America's Forum."
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The deal isn't just being opposed by Israel, but by "the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Saudis, the Emirates, it's opposed by the Kuwaitis," said Huckabee. "There's nobody in the Middle East that thinks this is a great idea" and wants to let Iran "move toward" nuclear arms.
"Nobody with an IQ above broccoli could possibly think that letting the Iranians have nuclear devices makes any more sense than giving a pyromaniac a can of gasoline and a box of matches."
Once every Democrat, every Republican, said in a "bipartisan way" that there would be no nuclear Iran, and it's time to make that clear again, said Huckabee.
Meanwhile, Huckabee, who expects to announce a decision on running for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, said that it was "embarrassing on the part of the Democrats" who refused to listen to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
address to Congress on Tuesday.
"They needed to listen to what the prime minister had to say," he said. "He's talking about not just the security for the state of Israel, he's talking about the security for the United States of America against a country that has been a state sponsor of terrorism."
That Democrats did not really defend the content of the Iranian deal, choosing instead to disagree with how Netanyahu was invited by House Speaker John Boehner to address Congress, "was just disgusting," said Huckabee.
Further, Huckabee said, Iran has "vowed to take over America both publicly and privately," and it has never made a deal that it has kept.
"[Iran is a country that] held American hostages for 444 days, that does its terrorism under its own flag and with its government officials," he said, adding that for President Barack Obama "to act with such petulance because he didn't like the way that the invitation was issued, it showed a level of both petulance and arrogance that was frankly embarrassing."
Huckabee wondered if people understood that Netanyahu's speech wasn't politically motivated on his own behalf.
The prime minister is seeking re-election this month, but Huckabee said his speech was done at "great political risk" because there are many Israelis who did not agree with him making the appearance.
"He made this speech at great political risk to himself because he truly believes that Iran represents a clear and present danger to the state of Israel," said Huckabee.