On Friday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “On Balance,” Mike Huckabee, President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Israel, who was speaking in his personal capacity since he hasn’t been confirmed, praised the maximum pressure campaign under the first Trump administration, stated that things in the Middle East can’t go back to the way they were pre-October 7, and “the world needs to look to” regime change in Iran as the goal.
Huckabee said that the Middle East needs “A good dose of reality, for one thing, and that reality means that there’s got to be an understanding that it’s the Iranians who are funding the terrorism of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. The attacks that have happened on Israel in the last 400-plus days since October the 7th are largely funded because Joe Biden took his foot off the brake, put it on the gas pedal, and basically made it possible for the Iranians to have money that Donald Trump had shut off because of the maximum pressure sanctions. Donald Trump never bombed Iran. He didn’t have to. He was bankrupting them, which is far more effective and a lot less lethal for innocent people. The result, however, of what changed in that policy was the bloody mess that was created when Hamas went and massacred innocent Jewish civilians in Israel. And it’s changed the dynamics without any way to go back to thinking that it’s all going to be like it once was, it can’t be.”
Host Leland Vittert then asked, “Benjamin Netanyahu has been clear, especially in the past couple of weeks or months, that the regime in Tehran needs to change, not just sanctions, not just pressure. Should the United States look to that end goal as well?”
Huckabee responded, “I think the world needs to look to it. Quite frankly, let’s face it, Leland, every Gulf state in the Middle East would be delighted if there was regime change. I don’t think they’re probably going to say it publicly. But don’t you think there would be celebrations in Saudi Arabia, in the UAE, perhaps even in Qatar? I can’t think of any Muslim-led nation that wouldn’t be better off if there was a regime change, because the Iranians are not really interested in building a neighborhood where everyone can kind of get along and create diplomatic relationships and share tourism and trade. They’ve never been into that. They are for annihilating Israel, and, ultimately, the U.S. And one of the stupid things that happens in this country is when Americans think that all of this is just going to be contained there, that the Iranians have no intention beyond Israel, if they can just get them from the river to the sea, it’s over. They’ve repeatedly said, Israel is the little Satan, we’re the great Satan. So, their goal is not to end their conquest with Israel. It’s just the warm-up for the real fight, which they think is us.”
Huckabee added that the Iranian people would be pleased if the regime changed and that if he becomes Ambassador, it’s not going to be him setting policy.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett