Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee refused Friday to wade into Donald Trump's attacks on conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt for asking "gotcha" questions in a foreign policy interview, saying only that the next commander-in-chief of the United States must have sound judgment.
"Questions are fair, but I don't think you elect a president because he has encyclopedic knowledge of geography or of the personnel of countries," the former Arkansas governor told CNN's Jake Tapper. "You elect them because of judgment."
He said that he has been in interviews where "someone springs something on me like, 'Can you name the vice minister of education? You know, in Bangladesh?'
"And, you know, the answer is probably not," Huckabee said. "But I'm not sure that's important. It is important to elect somebody with good judgment."
Trump slammed Hewitt Thursday after he had
asked him questions about various key players in the Middle East. The questions later were answered with little difficulty by fellow GOP contender Carly Fiorina.
"I'm going to leave it to Donald Trump, to Rick Santorum and others," Huckabee said.
Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who also is running for the nomination,
attacked Trump by saying Friday that the presidency was not an "entry-level position."
"I'm going to focus my campaign on talking about the issues that I think are important," Huckabee told Tapper. "Donald Trump is getting all the attention he needs, Jake, on yours and every other network.
"I'll leave it at that."