Mike Huckabee in CNN 2015 GOP primary debate

On Abortion: Litmus test for Supreme Court justices on rights of unborn

Q: Will you have a litmus test when it comes to appointing Supreme Court nominees?

HUCKABEE: You better believe I will, because I'm tired of liberals always having a litmus test and conservatives are supposed to pretend we don't. Well let me tell you what mine would be. Number one, I'd ask do you think that the unborn child is a human being or is it just a blob of tissue? I'd want to know the answer to that. I'd want to know do you believe in the First Amendment, do you believe that religious liberty is the fundamental liberty around which all the other freedoms of this country are based? And do you believe in the Fifth and the 14th Amendment? Do you believe that a person, before they're deprived of life and liberty, should in fact have due process and equal protection under the law? Because if you do, you're going to do more than defund Planned Parenthood.

Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN Sep 16, 2015

On Abortion: Under my presidency, life would be really deemed precious

Q: How will the world look different once your Air Force One is parked in the hangar of your presidential library?

HUCKABEE: At the end of my presidency I would like to believe that the world would be a safe place; people wouldn't bully us because they would know that that would be an invitation to their destruction. Domestically, we would be operating under a tax system that eliminated the IRS. People wouldn't be punished for their work, and for what they produced. And we would focus on cures. And we would make this country not only safe from our enemies without, but safe from the enemies within. And it would be a good place to raise our kids and our grandkids.

Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN Sep 16, 2015

On Civil Rights: Stop criminalization of Christianity, like on gay marriage

I am here to fight for somebody who is a county clerk elected under the Kentucky constitution that 75 percent of the people of that state had voted for that said that marriage was between a man and a woman. We made accommodation to the Fort Hood shooter to let him grow a beard. We made accommodations to the detainees at Gitmo. You're telling me that you cannot make an accommodation for an elected Democrat county clerk from Kentucky? What else is it other than the criminalization of her faith? Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN Sep 16, 2015

On Gun Control: Litmus test for Supreme Court justices on Second Amendment

Q: Will you have a litmus test when it comes to appointing Supreme Court nominees?

HUCKABEE: You better believe I will. . I'd want to know do you believe in the First Amendment? And do you believe in the Fifth and the 14th Amendment? And I'd want to know do you really believe in the Second Amendment, do you believe that we have an individual right to bear arms to protect ourselves and our family and to protect our country? I'd make darn sure that we absolutely believe the 10th Amendment. Every governor on this stage would share this much with you. Our biggest fight wasn't always with the legislature or even with the Democrats. My gosh, half the time, it was with the federal government who apparently never understood that if it's not reserved in the Constitution, then the 10th Amendment says it's left to the states. But somebody forgot to send a memo to Washington.

Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN Sep 16, 2015

On Health Care: Focus on curing Alzheimers, cancer, heart disease & diabetes

We need to remember that there is no controversy about the things that are driving medical costs. The next president ought to declare a war on cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer's, because those are the four things that are causing the greatest cost. I remember the polio vaccine. We saved billions of dollars since that time, because we haven't had to treat for polio. Why doesn't this country focus on cures rather than treatment? We change the economy and the country. Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN Sep 16, 2015

On Tax Reform: Get rid of all taxes on people who produce

Q You have said that you are bothered by the fact that hedge fund managers pay such a low tax rate and make 2,500 times what people who work for them make. Do you agree with what Donald Trump and Governor Bush have proposed, raising their tax rates?

HUCKABEE: I have a different idea. I think we ought to get rid of all the taxes on people who produce. Why should we penalize productivity? And it's why I'm an unabashed supporter of the "fair tax," which would be a tax on our consumption, rather than a tax on our productivity. In other words, you're not going to tax anybody for what they earn, whether it's worker whose working by the hour or whether it's a hedge fund manager. If they can produce something and bring capital and labor to create jobs, we need some jobs. And I think the "fair tax" makes more sense. What I'd love to see us do by no longer penalizing the people who are out there working because they are taking a gut punch right now.

Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN Sep 16, 2015

On War & Peace: Conflict with Iran is about survival of Western civilization

[The Iranian nuclear deal] is really about the survival of Western civilization. This is not just a little conflict with a Middle Eastern country. This threatens Israel immediately, this threatens the entire Middle East, but it threatens the United States of America. And we can't treat a nuclear Iranian government as if it is just some government that would like to have power. This is a government for 36 years has killed Americans, they kidnapped Americans, they have maimed Americans. They have sponsored terrorist groups, Hamas and Hezbollah, and they threaten the very essence of Western civilization. To give them this agreement, that the president treats like the Magna Carta, but Iranians treat it like it's toilet paper, and we must, simply, make it very clear that the next president, one of us on this stage, will absolutely not honor that agreement, and will destroy it and will be tough with Iran, because otherwise, we put every person in this world in a very dangerous place. Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN Sep 16, 2015

On War & Peace: People won't bully us if we have best military in history

Q [to PAUL and HUCKABEE]: How will the world look different in your presidency?

Sen. Rand PAUL: War is the last resort, not the first resort. And, that when we go to war, we go to war in a constitutional way, which means that we have to vote on it, that war is initiated by Congress, not by the president.

HUCKABEE: At the end of my presidency I would like to believe that the world would be a safe place, and there wouldn't be the threats. not only to the U.S., but to Israel and our allies, never send them to a mission without all the resources necessary, but people wouldn't bully us anymore. Because they would know that that would be an invitation to their destruction.

Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN Sep 16, 2015

The above quotations are from CNN Two-Tier 2015 GOP primary debate First Tier: Eleven candidates by polls Second Tier: Four other Republicans. Click here for main summary page. Click here for a profile of Mike Huckabee. Click here for Mike Huckabee on all issues.
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Page last updated: Dec 07, 2018