In a one-on-one interview with The Brody File, Mike Huckabee says he didn’t run for president because of the toxic political atmosphere and the fact that he didn’t see enough money heading his way to compete effectively.
Huckabee sat down with us at the GOP Convention in Tampa and will be one of our guests on this week’s Brody File Show this Friday at 9:30 .a.m ET on the ABC Family Channel.
Watch below along with the transcription.
David Brody: I know you were thinking of running for president and decided not to and I know there is no second guessing on your part, but for all the evangelicals sitting there at their kitchen counters crying, going Mike Huckabee could have been the guy, what do you say to these folks?
Mike Huckabee: I’m grateful for their even having that sentiment, I’m deeply grateful for that. It makes me, I don’t know, feel very wonderful that people would even imagine it. But on the other hand that two things were going to make it very difficult for me. One was the toxic atmosphere that existed in the party. A candidate like me that really doesn’t enjoy going out in an angry, tearing up other people on the Republican ticket, it’s just not my thing. I’ll mix it up with the liberals any day of the week, and have fun doing it, even then I’m not going to do it in an angry way.
But the other factor, and I’ve been in politics long enough to know, I did not see the level of money coming my way that is not only necessary to compete, but in this world in politics, it’s not enough to have money to get your message out. You’ve also got to have the money to defend yourself against the millions of dollars of the anonymous money that comes against you by way of the independent expenditures.
It’s so vicious, it’s so mean, some things are so untrue and unfair, you’ve got to respond to them, but you’ve got to have money to do that, and it’s just unfortunate, but that’s kind of where the process is.
Brody: Well, that's right and Rick Santorum found that out first hand. He had no ATM to go with him.
Huckabee: You can't be the candidate that does what the federal government does, spend money that you don’t have, borrow money you cant afford to pay back. I’ve committed to my wife, to God, and everybody around me I wasn’t going to do that four years ago and I wasn’t going to do it this time.