Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be a "very formidable" candidate for the presidency, likely GOP candidate Mike Huckabee said Sunday, but as a former Arkansas politician, he knows how to fight the Clintons for office.
"Every time I ran in Arkansas, I ran against the Clinton political machine," Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate, told ABC
"This Week" host George Stephanopoulos. "Every race I had, I ran against their machinery and their money."
And even after Bill Clinton was no longer in office in Arkansas, "both came back and campaigned personally for every opponent I had...the Clintons play to win."
Huckabee, whose campaigns against the Clintons reached into the 2008 election, when he ran against Hillary Clinton, said that it would be a mistake for anyone to underestimate her as a powerhouse candidate in 2016.
"Anyone who thinks she is going to get into this halfheartedly...they underestimate the Clintons," he told Stephanopoulos.
However, this race will be far different for her than her 2008 campaign was, said Huckabee, because she'll be carrying more baggage this time around.
"She has a lot to deal with that she didn't before," said Huckabee, pointing out that as a member of President Barack Obama's administration, Clinton will need to answer for many controversial policy decisions over the years, along with her own personal issues, including the use of a private email server while she was in office.
"She has to explain how she is not going to be Obama's third term," said Huckabee, who has not yet officially launched his own campaign for the GOP nomination.
But Huckabee does not believe that personal attacks, such as
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's accusations that Bill Clinton was a "sexual predator" with intern Monica Lewinsky, are the way to win against Clinton.
"Personal attacks are not necessary," he told Stephanopoulos. "There are issues that are more important. Some of us have got to decide if want a campaign about the future of America. That really needs to be the focus, not about what someone did years ago."
Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, also discussed the role of money in the upcoming election. Texas Republican
Sen. Ted Cruz' super PACs have already raised $31 million since he announced his candidacy last month, for example, but Huckabee said money isn't all that's important in mounting a race, pointing out that he won primaries despite being outspent by other candidates.
"I don't think Americans want the best-financed candidate," Huckabee said, but instead, want one that understands that the economy is not recovering as it should for most people.
Huckabee also does not agree with senators like Cruz, Paul, and Florida's Marco Rubio serving in office while they're seeking the presidency.
"How do you do your job if you never show up?" he said. "Why should taxpayers subsidize their campaigns?"
Moving away from the election, Huckabee also discussed this weekend's summit meeting between Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro. He admitted that while he was governor in 2002, he believed the embargo on the island nation should be lifted, but now he thinks he was wrong and Castro and his brother, longtime dictator Fidel Castro, should be held responsible for their tradition of human rights abuses.
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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.
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