Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee agrees with Dr. Ben Carson, a former Fox contributor, that his childhood in the inner city makes him totally qualified to be the secretary of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Appearing on Fox today, Huckabee suggested that just having the right attitude about poor people (and we know what ethnic group he’s thinking of) is all that’s required for the job:
HUCKABEE: He brings to it a personal story of having grown up in a tough neighborhood, growing up as one of numerous children to a single mom who had to raise them but who insisted they get a good education, who understands the value of housing and neighborhoods and how that affects a person growing up.
I think it’s a great choice. Look, Ben Carson is a brilliant man. I mean, people need to remember that this is a guy who, before all the political people started piling on him, had been awarded by about every national and international organization in the world, including the NAACP for his humanitarian efforts. I think he’s a terrific choice.
Carson may be brilliant (though he acts like the world’s dumbest brain surgeon) but that doesn’t mean he’s fit to run a big federal department in a field of public policy he knows nothing about.
But host Martha MacCallum didn’t challenge a word Huckabee said. Nor did she seem to consider that people who live in inner cities or otherwise need HUD might take this nomination as a huge slap in the face. Instead, she helped validate Huckabee’s praise. MacCallum even worked in some praise for Donald Trump for nominating Carson.
MACCALLUM: I think in many ways, the second part of his new title, “urban development,” is one that he will do broadly, as you have just pointed out. And I think that a lot of people in this country wanted him to have a voice in this administration. And I think it also speaks interestingly to Mr. Trump because he was reluctant, it appeared, Ben Carson, to take an official role.
Huckabee went on to argue that Carson's "experience" proves Trump cares about urban America. Even though I suspect most urban Americans will think it proves the opposite.
HUCKABEE: Ben Carson will bring a real perspective and nobody’s gonna be able to say, “Well, Ben, you don’t understand what it’s like growing up in an urban environment. You just don’t get it.” He gets it alright and I think he’s going to be a silencer to many of the critics who otherwise would try to say that this administration isn’t going to live up to the promises for a true sense of looking at the problems in urban America. Donald Trump has promised it, people believed him, he’s gonna deliver.
As if Trump couldn’t find anyone who both grew up in an urban environment and was qualified.
Watch the disrespect to inner city residents below, from the December 5, 2016 America’s Newsroom.
But because he’s behaved himself very well in the eyes of the Right and Fox News, playing to the businessmen at Fox News and the most wild-eyed of the evangelical community, he’s poised to resume his Fox News weekend show in the new year. I’ve been waiting for them to announce the return of the Huckabee show as of January, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it pop up as soon as they can close a deal with him. (The only thing that was holding this back was the notion that he might take a position in the Trump cabinet, but it’s evident he turned that idea down flat.) This makes sense for Huckabee, as he’s set to make a LOT more money when he resumes his contract. And it allows Huckabee to block Ted Cruz from coming to Fox News after he gets primaried out of office in a couple of years. So Huckabee both gets to personally profit from the Trump presidency and gets to prevent Cruz from getting access to the well where Huckabee has been drinking for the past near decade. This is a long-game version of the delightful moment during the campaign where Huckabee seized on the Kim Davis controversy and blocked Cruz from being able to poach on the territory. One gets the impression that Huckabee got a lot of satisfaction by denying Cruz that moment, and he’ll get a lot more satisfaction by denying Cruz the big payday here.