Mike Huckabee on moving forward, uniting after unrest: ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself’
Former Arkansas governor and Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee reacts to the George Floyd protests on ‘Fox and Friends.’
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said on Wednesday that NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio refusing to send in the National Guard to address the rioting “makes no sense.”
Huckabee told “Fox & Friends" that it was wrong for de Blasio to claim the National Guard is not trained to help police quell violence.
"Yes, they are. That is exactly what they are trained for. ... His ignorance of that is stunning to me,” Huckabee said.
Huckabee said that the National Guard is “carefully trained” and “know how to get into these situations” to handle them.
De Blasio earlier Tuesday announced that the city’s curfew will be extended through the end of the week following yet another night of looting, destruction and “vicious attacks on police officers.”
The decision to order residents to stay indoors from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. comes as De Blasio simultaneously urged local community leaders to “not let outsiders attack” by stepping forward, creating peace and taking charge of their neighborhoods. The Democrat's administration so far has failed to stop roving bands of looters from ransacking everything from chain stores to mom-and-pop businesses in recent days.
“We are going to ensure there are additional NYPD resources where they are needed,” de Blasio told reporters Tuesday while announcing the curfew extension. “We are going to work actively and strategically to stop any disorder, but again community leaders need to be a part of this effort.”
When de Blasio was asked by a reporter if he intends to call in the National Guard for help – as many governors across the U.S. have done in hopes to quell rioting linked to George Floyd demonstrations – he poured cold water on the idea.
“We do not need, nor do we think it is wise for the National Guard to be in New York City. Nor any armed forces,” he said. “When outside armed forces go into communities no good comes of it.”
New York City implemented its first curfew in decades Monday night around 11 p.m. But before that even went into effect, the looting was well underway, particularly in the Manhattan and Bronx boroughs.
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Huckabee said that there needs to be a public forum and a “behind-closed-doors honest assessment” of police brutality and injustice.
“One thing that I would hope people start realizing. This is not a political divide, this is a spiritual divide. This isn’t so much a skin problem, it is a sin problem. It’s a problem when people think they are better than others. If you have cops who don’t believe their authority is limited to the law and you have a guy who puts his knee on the guy's neck and kills him, that’s a sin problem,” Huckabee said.
Huckabee explained that the “ultimate governance of the United States is not the federal, state, and local level institutions, it is self-governance.”
“We’ve got to get to the root of this,” he concluded.
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