Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on Thursday met with (two) reporters at a Buckhead condominium and in a packed 15 minutes praised Georgia voters, slammed Hillary Clinton, said he wouldn't shut down government over Planned Parenthood and refused to say what he'd do about 11 million illegal immigrants current in the United States.
Huckabee arrived in town fresh off a requisite stop at the Iowa State Fair. On Planned Parenthood, the former Arkansas governor said the women's health clinic should be shut down, but there are ways other than closing the entire federal government.
"Maybe tie it to the debt ceiling," he said. "Refuse to allow an additional lifting of the debt ceiling without the cessation of money going to Planned Parenthood. a government shutdown hurts a lot of people that have no business being hurt, whether they're veterans or people taking their vacation.
Huckabee also said he'd sic the Justice Department on Planned Parenthood should he be elected.
As for Clinton, an old foil from their days in Arkansas, Huckabee said the likely Democratic nominee is in a world of hurt over the never-ending email scandal.
Said Huckabee: "What has changed over the past several days is that this is no longer a political issue for Hillary. It is a legal issue. When you're being investigated by the Justice Department, when you have publicly said you didn't have those emails on your server and then admit you do. when you say you didn't have classified material and now it turns out you had top secret material, when you claim you had turned over all the emails and now it turns out you didn't turn over all the emails -- those are direct issues in violation of law, that's not just a political problem."
For the record, Clinton's backers say there's nothing to worry about.
Illegal immigration continues to be an issue that vexes the country and, in particular, Republican candidates for president. Some support a path to legal status for the estimated 11 million immigrants here illegally. A few would offer a path to citizenship. Huckabee, however, refused to say what he'd do other than make sure the border with Mexico is secure -- even after being asked several times.
The winner of Georgia's 2008 Republican presidential primary used a leaky faucet as an example. With water spilling all over the floor, the first step is not to go buy a new sink. It's to stop the leak.
"Once you get the leak stopped, then you can go and casually look up and down the aisles and pick out a new sink," he said. "When we start saying what are we going to do about the 11 million, I think, 'no that's something we wait and deal with once we get the immediate, urgent problem resolved, and once we do that then we start to address the 11 million.'"
Finally, Huckabee said Georgia is square in his plans for winning the White House.
"Of course it's critical for us," Huckabee said. "Eight years ago, Georgia gave me their votes. I don't presume I get them automatically but I"m sure going to fight to keep them. If the rest of America had been as smart as Georgia was eight years ago, our country would not be in the mess it's in right now. That's a good reason for Georgia to come back home to a fellow southerner, a fellow SEC guy and let's make it happen."
Huckabee led Georgia polls as recently as May. But a poll released last week by Channel 2 Action News shows the genial former governor has fallen behind mogul Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
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