Obama calls Huckabee 'ridiculous and sad'

WASHINGTON – It's not every day the president of the United States stoops to calling his critics "ridiculous and sad."

President Obama appears to be resorting to taunts rather than substance in responding to critics after Secretary of State John Kerry made a series of damaging admissions during Senate testimony in defense of the administration's sweeping nuclear arms deal with Iran on Thursday, and after Democratic National Committee chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., refused to endorse the agreement.

A volatile exchange of words between the president and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee began Saturday when the former Arkansas governor claimed the Iran deal would "take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven."

Obama responded from Ethiopia on Monday, charging, "The particular comments of Mr. Huckabee are just part of a general pattern we’ve seen that would be considered ridiculous if it weren’t so sad."

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.

TRENDING: The civil war has already begun

Huckabee shot back, "What's 'ridiculous and sad' is that President Obama does not take Iran's repeated threats seriously."

He added: "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 also referred to comments by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Iranian leader said it is "the mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to erase Israel from the map of the region." And Khamenei's deputy said, "We have manufactured missiles that allow us ... to replace Israel ... with a big holocaust."

Ben Shapiro has assembled the details you need to know here: "The People Vs. Barack Obama: The Criminal Case Against the Obama Administration."

Obama also went after other Republican critics of his Iran deal.

"We’ve had a sitting senator call John Kerry Pontius Pilate. We’ve had a sitting senator, who also happens to be running for president, suggest that I’m the leading state sponsor of terrorism. These are leaders in the Republican Party."

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas

Part of that comment was a response to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who on July 15 told Megyn Kelly of Fox News: "If this deal goes through, the Obama administration will become the leading financier of terrorism against America in the world. I’ve heard this referred to before as the jihadist stimulus bill.”

Perhaps Obama ignored the substance of the remark because the administration has already admitted it is powerless to stop Cruz's prediction from becoming a reality.

National Security Adviser Susan Rice had this exchange with CNN's Wolf Blitzer July 15:

Blitzer: Now, I just want to be precise. So there's really - once the money starts flowing in, it's their money, correctly, as I pointed out and as you pointed out, it's their money, what they could do with it whatever they want. If they want to give a billion dollars in weapons to Bashar al-Assad or a billion dollars to Houthi rebels in Yemen. ...

Rice: No, they can't - they can't do that, Wolf, because they'll still be under an arms embargo that would prevent them from sending weapons anywhere.

Blitzer: Well, what if they're not sending weapons? What if they're just sending money?

Rice: Well, they may be able to send money, yes.

The Obama deal will give Iran access to up to $150 billion to spend as it wishes and would do nothing to stop the Islamic Republic from sending windfalls to its terrorist proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and throughout the Middle East, North Africa and perhaps even the Americas.

As for the "Pontius Pilate" remark, as WND reported, it was Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who charged that Kerry had acted like the man who ordered the crucifixion of Christ by approving crucial secret side deals.

The side deals were just one of a series of damaging revelations about the agreement that Kerry had to admit were true in his Senate testimony Thursday:

• Iran will be allowed to take its own inspections samples from suspected nuclear sites.

• The United States will not be allowed to collect those samples.

• No one other than Iran will be able to take samples.

• The administration has reneged on its promise in April that international inspectors would have "anytime, anywhere" access to Iranian sites.

• The public has no idea what access inspectors will have.

• The administration does not know what access inspectors will have.

• A secret side deal allows Iran to negotiate directly with the the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, as to how much access its inspectors will have.

President Obama's full remarks on criticisms of his Iran deal:

"The particular comments of Mr. Huckabee are, I think, part of just a general pattern that we've seen that is -- would be considered ridiculous if it weren’t so sad. We've had a sitting senator call John Kerry Pontius Pilate. We've had a sitting senator who also happens to be running for President suggest that I'm the leading state sponsor of terrorism. These are leaders in the Republican Party. And part of what historically has made America great is, particularly when it comes to foreign policy, there’s been a recognition that these issues are too serious, that issues of war and peace are of such grave concern and consequence that we don't play fast and loose that way. We have robust debates, we look at the facts, there are going to be disagreements. But we just don't fling out ad hominem attacks like that, because it doesn’t help inform the American people.

Advertisement - story continues below

"I mean, this is a deal that has been endorsed by people like Brent Scowcroft and Sam Nunn -- right? -- historic Democratic and Republican leaders on arms control and on keeping America safe. And so when you get rhetoric like this, maybe it gets attention and maybe this is just an effort to push Mr. Trump out of the headlines, but it's not the kind of leadership that is needed for America right now. And I don't think that's what anybody -- Democratic, Republican, or independent -- is looking for out of their political leaders.

"In fact, it's been interesting when you look at what’s happened with Mr. Trump, when he’s made some of the remarks that, for example, challenged the heroism of Mr. McCain, somebody who endured torture and conducted himself with exemplary patriotism, the Republican Party is shocked. And yet, that arises out of a culture where those kinds of outrageous attacks have become far too commonplace and get circulated nonstop through the Internet and talk radio and news outlets. And I recognize when outrageous statements like that are made about me, that a lot of the same people who were outraged when they were made about Mr. McCain were pretty quiet.

"The point is we're creating a culture that is not conducive to good policy or good politics. The American people deserve better. Certainly, presidential debates deserve better. In 18 months, I'm turning over the keys -- I want to make sure I'm turning over the keys to somebody who is serious about the serious problems the country faces and the world faces. And that requires on both sides, Democrat and Republican, a sense of seriousness and decorum and honesty. And I think that's what the voters expect, as well."

Follow Garth [email protected]

Related story:

Ayatollah tweets meme of gun to Obama's head