Former Gov. Mike Huckabee Friday strongly criticized "amateurs" who have been leaking information about President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet assignments, saying they should be more loyal to those making the decisions.
"I always say this: Those who know don't talk, and those who talk don't know," Huckabee fold Fox News' "America's Newsroom" co-host Martha MacCallum, when she asked if there is a future in Trump's administration for him.
"Well you know that is for Donald Trump to decide," Huckabee told her. "There is loyalty you owe to whoever it is making these decisions. Secondly, leaking out information is the game of amateurs. It is not the game that you play if you are really serious about wanting to have the best people in place."
Trump is coming under fire for not having his administration picks already made, Huckabee continued, when he is already "far in advance" of where other presidents, dating back to former President George H.W. Bush, who did not have people named this soon.
"I think it is the media creation of the 24-hour news cycle, and everybody thinks he is supposed to have it done the day after the election when he didn't sleep that night," said Huckabee. "It is a very complicated process to put 4,100 people in positions in a short period of time, to ask them to go through upheaval."
One of Trump's picks, Alabama Sen. Ted Sessions of Alabama to serve as attorney general, was an "amazingly good choice, one I give standing ovation for," said Huckabee, and he does not think the senator should undergo a difficult confirmation period based on reports of racially insensitive comments.
In 1986, Sessions was denied a federal judgeship after former colleagues testified before a Senate that he joked about the Ku Klux Klan, saying he thought they were "okay, until he learned that they smoked marijuana."
"My gosh, if everybody judged by something they said 35 years ago or 40 years ago in offhand way really wasn't intended to be harmful, nobody has a shot getting confirmed for anything," Huckabee said. "Jeff Sessions proven himself as very effective United States senator."
"Hand-wringers and bed wetters" in the Republican Party have also criticized Trump's list of potential Supreme Court justices for not being conservative, Huckabee said, when Trump is picking solid, conservative people."
Trump is also including former foes of his for key roles in his administration such as Mitt Romney, and Huckabee said he is not sure if the 2012 nominee will have a role.
He also would not comment on a role for himself, including the possibility of becoming an ambassador to Israel.
"I have no comment on anything that the president-elect might present to me, and I don't know that's my future," Huckabee said. "I just don't know. That is his decision to make. It is my decision, only to process that and decide but, as I said earlier, I will stand by it, those who know don't talk. Those who talk don't know."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.