Huckabee won’t back down from Holocaust comments

Mike Huckabee is not backing down from his comments evoking the Holocaust to criticize the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration.

The GOP presidential candidate quickly responded Monday after President Obama decried as “ridiculous” and “sad” Huckabee’s comments that the deal will “take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.”

{mosads}“What’s ‘ridiculous and sad’ is that President Obama does not take Iran’s repeated threats seriously,” Huckabee said in a statement on Monday.

“For decades, Iranian leaders have pledged to ‘destroy,’ ‘annihilate,’ and ‘wipe Israel off the map’ with a ‘big Holocaust.’ ‘Never again’ will be the policy of my administration and I will stand with our ally Israel to prevent the terrorists in Tehran from achieving their own stated goal of another Holocaust,” Huckabee said.

Obama, Democrats and Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, have criticized Huckabee’s remarks. Obama panned the “outrageous attacks” as “too commonplace” in the GOP.

The president also accused Huckabee of making deliberately outrageous comments to get attention for himself in the GOP presidential race.

Huckabee’s comments come as the White House continues its push to lobby Congress on the deal, which trades sanctions reliefs for concessions on Iran’s nuclear program. Lawmakers have until late September to vote to scuttle the deal but will have to overcome a presidential veto.