Huck to Cruz: It’s a ‘Big Boy Game’

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee tore into Sen. Ted Cruz on Thursday, accusing him of hypocrisy when he claims the moral high ground in his competition with Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

Appearing on “The Laura Ingraham Show,” the former presidential candidate noted that Cruz often accuses Trump of whining about the nomination rules.

“Ted, this is a big boy game. It’s a blood sport,” he said. “I’ve always said to people who told me they were thinking about running for anything, ‘If you can’t stand the sight of your own blood, don’t do it.’ It’s a brutal game … Here’s my problem with Ted Cruz. There is a level of double standard and hypocrisy with what Ted says. He’ll say, ‘I don’t ever say anything bad about my opponent.’ And yet, he does it all the time.”

Huckabee noted that Cruz, for instance, called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar. He added that Cruz also, without any evidence, accused Trump of planting a story in the National Enquirer alleging marital infidelity by the Texas senator.

Cruz for weeks has been trying to nudge Gov. John Kasich out of the presidential race in order to set up a one-on-one showdown with Trump. His argument is that Kasich has been mathematically eliminated from accumulating a majority of the delegates. But what if Cruz also finds himself by the end of the month without a mathematical possibility of getting to 1,237?

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“The question will be, will Ted take his own advice?” he asked.

Huckabee said both of the leading GOP candidates are intelligent, in different ways. But he said Cruz has an off-putting demeanor.

“One is smart in a Harvard kind of way, and the other’s smart in a street kind of way,” he said. “One is academically brilliant. No doubt, Ted Cruz is a brilliant person, has a keen mind and a sharp wit, and all of those things. But you know, there’s also this thing, whenever he talks, he’s the only one, the only person who is a constitutionalist, the only real conservative, the only one fighting the Establishment, the only one who’s the Christian candidate … There’s nobody who’s the only everything.”

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Reacting to talk radio host Glenn Beck’s recent likening of Cruz to Moses, Huckabee — a onetime Baptist minister — offered some biblical perspective.

“Glenn might need to remember that Moses never made it to the promised land,” he said. “You know, he only saw it from Mt. Nebo, and looked over and never got across the Jordan.” he said. “So if, indeed, he’s Moses, that might not be the best depiction and illustration or analogy to attribute to Ted.”

Huckabee also offered advice to Trump — focus on the people.

“Nobody really cares about how he’s being treated,” he said. “They care about how they’re being treated.”