Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Saturday he was the only 2016 GOP presidential candidate who had experience facing off with the Clintons in past elections.
“I fought the Clinton political machine in every election I’ve been in,” he said at the first annual “Roast and Ride” in Boone, Iowa.
“If you want someone who has fought the Clinton political machine and won, you’re looking at the only person who has lived to tell about it,” he said of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
{mosads}Huckabee encountered the Clintons while serving as Arkansas’ governor between 1996 and 2007.
He charged Saturday that they represent the kind of political power he would avoid should he win in 2016.
“America is a great country, but we are losing this nation because we have failed to understand that when we elect people, they have to serve us,” Huckabee said. “We are not supposed to serve them.”
Huckabee argued that a government divorced from its people put its own interests before theirs.
He cited the economy as an example of imbalance he would fix upon taking the Oval Office.
“People are working harder than ever before and have less to show for it,” Huckabee said. “There are a lot of people in this country that are sweating through their clothes and lifting heavy things every day.”
Military veterans struggling for their benefits, he added, was another example of failed leadership.
“It is a shame they have to beg and plead to get their veterans’ benefits from” the Department of Veterans Affairs, he said.
“This is a government that has broken a lot of its promises,” he added.
Huckabee also ripped Social Security as a program the federal government was badly mismanaging.
“We’re not talking about an entitlement,” he said. “This is an earned benefit you paid for.”
The former Arkansas governor doubled down on his recent criticism of the Supreme Court for abusing its powers.
“Nine unelected, black-robed judges do not get to determine what’s right or wrong,” he said, calling their decisions “judicial tyranny” if left unchecked.
Huckabee concluded his remarks by mentioning that the birth of his fifth grandchild was expected on Sunday.
He said he wanted to ensure a vibrant future for his family’s latest addition by winning the White House next year.
“I’m on a mission to make this country a better one for my five grandchildren than it would be if we keep going down the direction we’re heading on,” Huckabee said.