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‘WE’VE GOT TO SPEAK TO THE WAFFLE HOUSE, NOT THE COUNTRY CLUB.’ Huckabee Tells GOP to Fix Messaging

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said it’s time for Republicans to change their messaging if they want to win big in November.

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“I do think the Republicans have got to step it up when it comes to messaging,” Huckabee told the “Todd Starnes Show.”

The former governor said the GOP needs to do better messaging for hardworking Americans.

“We’ve got to speak to the Waffle House, not to the country club,” he said. “If we do that, we win big. If we don’t do that, it could be a much closer election. And it shouldn’t be. There should be a clear choice that Americans have between people who want to secure the border and those who don’t. People who want to use our energy and make our costs lower. And those who want to make the cost higher. Those who want to truly fight inflation. And those who are going to keep it going. There’s a host of issues that the choice is incredibly clear, and I just have a hard time believing that Americans really want this party to stay in power.”

LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW ON THE TODDCAST PODCAST:

Below is a rushed transcript from the Todd Starnes Show:

STARNES: [01:00:32] Governor, hope you’re doing good. Welcome back. 

HUCKABEE: Well, thank you very much. Great to be back with you —-tonight. What kind of insight can you add to that? I mean, here a person who is clearly confused and somehow thinks that if a person is gay or lesbian, that they’re left out. Seems to me they’re the only ones who are left in these days. How many evangelical Christians were given an award? How many of them were honored with how wonderful they are? Any people who are MAGA people? Or as Joe Biden calls those folks, MAGA fascists. Is there room on that stage for them? I think not. So I just don’t understand why this sense of being a victim is still so prevalent among these people. 

STARNES: Yeah, I mean, you hear the cheering crowd there and you wonder how any straight people in the house tonight?. I mean, it’s clear to me that they control the media and the entertainment industry now. And you’re right, to your point, I certainly didn’t hear anybody celebrating Christians or conservatives or anyone who did not follow the woke party line. 

HUCKABEE: Yeah. I mean, I didn’t hear someone say and we just want to say how much we love all our Republican friends and the people who supported Trump, and all the pro-life people, and all the pro-family people and all the people who want border security. No, half the country is simply not welcome. So let’s be real clear about what the agenda for these folks happens to be. 

STARNES:  Yeah, it’s funny, we’ve been following a lot of these stories that come out of country music now as we’re watching the Wokeness sort of infect, Nashville, NashVegas. And was it Jason Aldean’s wife who got a lot of backlash. She was talking about, you know, her parents letting her be a tomboy, and she thanked her parents for not changing her gender. You would think that would not necessarily be a controversial statement in the country music world, but here we are. 

HUCKABEE: Well, God bless Britney Aldean for sticking to her stuff. I found that refreshing and just made me like her even more for the fact that she didn’t just immediately apologize and grovel and say, “Oh, gee, I’m so sorry I’ve offended somebody.” She basically told them to put it where the sun don’t shine, that she was just expressing her feelings and that should be okay. 

STARNES: Yeah. She wrote on Instagram and this is a great response. Advocating for the genital mutilation of children under the disguise of love and calling it gender-affirming care is one of the worst evils. I will always support my children and do what I can to protect their innocence. The other day, Memphis wanted to be a dinosaur, and tomorrow Navy will want to be a cat. They’re children, for crying out loud. 

HUCKABEE: It’s a bizarre world we’re living in. But frankly, when it’s infected country music to the degree that it has, wokeness has now become officially, the sort of, the language of America. 

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STARNES: Governor Mike Huckabee on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line Governor, we played some audio earlier in the program from a guy you know, Ed Young, senior, the pastor at Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. And he did something that’s a big no-no in megachurches these days. He actually spoke out against elected leaders and went off on the progressives that have turned Houston into this crime-infested hellhole. And he was telling them to vote. He says, “vote the bums out.” He was saying that from the pulpit. I loved it. 

HUCKABEE: Yeah, it’s kind of refreshing. I mean, there are a lot of pastors who are so afraid of their own shadow and certainly afraid of their own congregations. You know, when I read the Old Testament, I see these prophets. I don’t think Amos would have ever fit in. In today’s world. Neither would Jeremiah or Isaiah. The prophets were pretty bold. Elijah didn’t exactly care what the king thought of him. And it’s a different world when we’re so particular to make sure that we can be popular rather than then we can be prophetic. 

STARNES: You know, Governor, we’ve been watching these developments over the past week or so surrounding the raid at Mar a Lago. Now, first of all, we’ll get to the redaction in just a moment, but I want to get your take on the FBI knocking on Mark Zuckerberg’s door and, quite frankly, bullying and intimidating them into suppressing that Hunter Biden laptop story. I’d like to know how many other news agencies and social media platforms got visits from the FBI. 

HUCKABEE: We all know because talking about government interference with an election that is electioneering in the purest of terms and the fact that there’s no accountability at the FBI for these kinds of activities is frightening. And this is a government agency funded by tax dollars. And clearly, they’ve got their thumb on the scale when it comes to the elections, and they’re trying to influence it toward the direction of the left. Now, I don’t think that that represents rank and file FBI agents, but it does represent the leadership, the politically well-connected in DC. And it absolutely must stop. And if the Republicans don’t have the guts to get it stopped, then they don’t deserve to be in power either. 

STARNES:  Governor, what do you make of the polling that’s out there, that CBS News had had a poll out, over the weekend saying that, “Yes, Republicans are still on track to retake the House, but not by much.” And there’s some concern out there that maybe things are getting a little squishy on the Republican side.

HUCKABEE: I do think the Republicans have got to step it up when it comes to messaging. We must start making sure Americans understand that we’re the people that want to protect what they’re paying at the grocery store and the gasoline pump. Sometimes I really have felt that Republicans have a great message for the corporate boardroom in the corner office. They don’t have a good message for the dinner table for the guy who lifted heavy things all day and sweated through all the way to his socks. And we’ve got to speak to the Waffle House, not to the country club. If we do that, we win big. If we don’t do that. It could be a much closer election. And it shouldn’t be. There should be a clear choice that Americans have between people who want to secure the border and those who don’t. People who want to use our energy and make our costs lower. And those who want to make the cost higher. Those who want to truly fight inflation. And those who are going to keep it going. There’s a host of issues that the choice is incredibly clear, and I just have a hard time believing that Americans really want this party to stay in power. 

STARNES: No, I do too, Governor. I will say this that, you know I’m as pro-life as they come, but you also have to be strategic and how you deal with some of these pieces of legislation. And the good people in Kansas learned that lesson the hard way when that, you know, that is a pro-life state. But the law went down in a massive defeat, and I think that is propelling people to get out and vote. There was a report out that more women are registering to vote. There was a concern about a race or congressional race in New York state where the Republicans should have won and did not. And the abortion issue was front and center. And clearly, based on the conversations coming out of the White House over the past couple of days. They see that as a possibility to really drive voters on the midterm elections. 

HUCKABEE:  Where we have to improve our messaging on that, is making sure people understand that the Supreme Court did not outlaw abortion. All the Supreme Court did was to say that it will be decided at the state level. And even at the state level, we’ve got to make sure that people are clear that what we’re against is wholesale abortion up to the moment of birth. This is not keeping women from their reproductive rights. It’s actually keeping them where they will be reproductive. But abortion on demand at any point is not something that the average Americans agree with. Over 80% of Americans believe there should be some limit on abortion. So that’s the issue that Republicans need to run on. Do you want unlimited abortion at any time, even up to the moment of birth or not? You can fine-tune when you think that is. You can do a lot of things. But if you live, once the Democrats have their way, they will basically be involved in infanticide, taking the life of a perfectly healthy baby just before he comes out of the womb. And not many Americans truly believe that makes sense. 

STARNES: Well said, and I’m with you. This is all about messaging. And we’ve got to get it together, we just got to. Governor, what’s coming up on the big show this weekend? 

HUCKABEE: Well, we’re going to have to Lenny Lablanc, who had a wonderful hit song called ‘Falling.’ He is also one of the most prolific Christian singers that is in the Christian contemporary world today. And we’ll have him as our musical guest. We’ve got a lot of stuff coming, some of which we’re still working on, and we’ll have it by Thursday of this week when we finally get our notifications of some of our guests. It’s going to be a good show. Never. It’s never disappointing

STARNES: It’s never disappointing. And by the way, we’ve got some exciting news out of Memphis ‘Young Rock.’ Dwayne Johnson’s US series is coming to Memphis to film. You know, they’ve got strong Memphis ties, you know, with the wrestling community and everything here. And it’s going to be a lot of fun seeing the Hollywood stars around these parts. 

HUCKABEE: You know, they’re probably going to ask you to have a cameo role in that film. I’m sure they will be prepared. Get your body in its best shape and be prepared to go out there and do some wrestling. And let’s get ready to rumble. 

STARNES: I love it. All right, Governor, always good having you on the program. Good to have you back with us. 

HUCKABEE:  Thank you, Todd.

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