Huckabee doesn’t want history repeated with Iran deal

DES MOINES - Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee drew parallels Thursday between the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran and England's appeasement approach toward Nazi Germany that preceded World War II and the Jewish holocaust.

The former Arkansas governor said he hoped Americans learned from that catastrophic history lesson and will not repeat the mistakes made decades ago by ratifying a poorly negotiated agreement with a nation whose leaders have publicly called for the demise of Israel and America.

'I've seen up close and personal what happens when people are naive and when they neglect the threats of a government that says we're going to kill people, and I'm not going to do that,” Huckabee told reporters during the start of his latest Iowa campaign swing. 'I'm not going to stand by and let that happen again without raising my voice to the fullest. I'll be full-throated, full throttle and I apologize to no one for that.”

Huckabee, who noted he has made numerous trips to Israel and three visits to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland where at least 1.1 million prisoners died, was roundly criticized for suggesting during a satellite radio interview last weekend that President Obama's Iran deal would march Israelis to the 'door of the oven.”

However, the 2016 GOP presidential hopeful told reporters Thursday the response he has received on the campaign trail has been 'overwhelmingly positive,” especially among Jewish Americans, noting 'I got hugs” from holocaust survivors during a New York stop Monday who 'totally understood” his concerns about the Iranian deal and 'were extremely grateful that somebody was telling the truth and being clear about it.”

'My point is when you have 36 years of an Iranian government openly saying we're going to wipe Israel off the face of the map; openly saying that we have developed the missiles that will turn Israel into a holocaust - their words; when you have a government that says we will make sure that Israel is a one-bomb country - I mean those are not just the rantings of some blogger in his pajamas sitting down in his parents' basement. This is the official Iranian government,” he said. 'Why are we not taking these crazies seriously?”

On a separate topic, Huckabee brushed aside criticism from an Iowa GOP leader who suggested the 2008 Iowa caucus winner helped cause the demise of the party's straw poll fundraiser when he announced last May that he would not participate in the event.

'I didn't know I was that powerful,” Huckabee told reporters Thursday. 'There's 17 candidates running for president and if I singularly killed the straw poll, then you should go ahead and declare me the caucus winner because that's a heck of a punch I must carry.”

Huckabee, who also made stops in western Iowa, said he is seeing bigger crowds earlier than he did eight years ago, when he was the surprise caucus winner. He noted he has already been to more than 30 Iowa counties and has caucus organizers is more than 60 counties, but he cautioned it's very early in the 2016 presidential selection process.

'Just remember that eight years ago at the end of July, Rudy Giuliani was the absolute foregone winner of the whole process. He was the nominee. Fred Thompson was No. 2, Mitt Romney was No. 3 and John McCain was No. 4 and I barely even registered - I was down there is the asterisk category,” he said. 'A year later, by the time the process had played out, McCain won, I was No. 2, Romney was third and Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani had zero delegates.”