Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Saturday that the press "got punked" by Donald Trump on the birther issue Friday and that Hillary Clinton will continue to have credibility problems in light of her pneumonia bout this week.
"Look, it's over," the former Arkansas governor told Uma Pemmaraju on Fox News. "I know the press — they're furious at Donald Trump because they got punked yesterday, pure and simple.
"Everybody should have learned from the primaries that you're not going to somehow out-showmanship Donald Trump," Huckabee added. "He is going to come out on top of that every time.
"He proved yesterday that once again he owned the press."
Trump publicly acknowledged for the first time on Friday that President Barack Obama was born in this country, seeking to quell the controversy that he ignited in March 2011.
"President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period," Trump said.
Regarding Clinton, Huckabee said that the Democrat should have been more forthcoming about her illness with voters.
"People can accept that not everybody will be in perfect health, even the president.
"If she just was very transparent, even if it is something that's a chronic disease that's mildly debilitating, most Americans would have said: 'Hey, you know what? A lot of us are dealing with issues and that's part of being a human being, certainly a woman who is nearly 70 years old,'" he said.
"Instead, the narrative of I am doing great, then collapsing — and an hour and a half later, everything is coming up roses … it's the dishonesty.
"That's why 70 percent of the American people don't trust her," Huckabee said.
"When it comes to November when people go in that booth, they're going to ask themselves this: 'Do I trust this person to be president?'"
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