Former Arkansas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was criticized after he claimed that if former President Donald Trump loses either the Republican primary or the general election, 2024 may be the last election decided by "ballots rather than bullets."
Huckabee made these remarks during an epiode of his show on Trinity Broadcasting Network on September 2 in which he erroneously claimed that President Joe Biden is actively working behind the scenes to ensure Trump doesn't win the 2024 election.
He began by drawing comparisons between the tactics used by political opponents in "Third World dictatorships, banana republics, and communist regimes" before answering his own question with a call to violence.
You can hear what Huckabee said in the video below.
Huckabee said:
"The people in power use their police agencies to arrest their opponents for made up crimes in an attempt to discredit them, bankrupt them, imprison them, exile them, or all of the above."
"And if you’re not paying attention, you may not realize that Joe Biden is using exactly those tactics to make sure that Donald Trump is not his opponent in 2024."
"Here’s the problem: If these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets."
Many have condemned Huckabee's remarks.
Huckabee's daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as White House Press Secretary under Trump and followed in her father's footsteps by becoming the Governor of Arkansas, has also been closely associated with the former President and has also backed similar conspiracy theories.
Mike Huckabee had previously voiced his support for Trump's potential third consecutive presidential campaign when it was announced in November. He praised Trump's campaign kickoff speech, describing it as "pitch-perfect" and suggesting that if Trump maintained this trajectory, he would be unbeatable in the 2024 election.
Following Trump's defeat by Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Huckabee supported Trump's legal challenges in closely contested states, declaring that Trump "owes it to all of us to make sure the election was fair."
Despite Trump's repeated claims, there is no evidence the election was compromised and he has faced numerous federal and state charges for his attempts to overturn the results.
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