(UPDATED BELOW)
Huckabee has been attacking Cruz for not being a true Christian recently, telling Buzzfeed last week:
“I just think it’s hard to say God is first in your life if he’s last in your budget,” Mike Huckabee said in an interview when asked about Cruz’s tithing. “If I can’t trust God with a dime out of each dollar that I earn, then I’m not sure how I can tell him that I trust him with my whole life… To me, it’s a validation of a person’s stewardship and whether they put God first in their life, not just in their political endeavors.”
Huckabee, a former Baptist minister who won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, added that he and his wife have tithed at least 10% every year since they were broke, young newlyweds. Asked if there was any public record of his charitable giving, he offered to forward an email from his accountant. (He did: the email stated that Huckabee had donated 11.05% of his taxable income in 2014, and 11.82% in 2013.)
“It’s a matter of authenticity,” said Huckabee, who was careful not to call out Cruz by name. “If I say I’m a vegan but you look at me eating hamburgers and ribeye every night you’re going to say, ‘I don’t think this guy’s really a vegan.’”
Now Huck’s super PAC is out with this ad calling Cruz a phony because he didn’t pay enough tithe to satisfy Huckabee:
Disgusting! Cruz specifically said gay marriage wasn’t a ‘top three’ issue for him. He didn’t say it wasn’t a top issue for him. And the tithing thing is ridiculous. I voted for a Mormon in 2012 and whatever John McCain is in 2008. While Cruz’s faith is important to me, it’s not a deal breaker if a candidate isn’t a Christian. And whatever tithe he gave is between him and God and I could care less about it.
Given all the trashing Huck is doing of Cruz, you’d think he’d align himself with someone who has the good Christian values he wants in his next president. But no, tonight he’s going to align himself with Trump, another man who has relentlessly trashed Cruz over the past month. I guess they do have something in common:
Scoop: Huckabee will be attending the Trump vets event tonight, a Huckabee spokesman tells me.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 28, 2016
You think if Cruz were holding this event, that Huckabee would be there?
Nope. He’d be trashing Cruz even more for holding the event and not going to the debate.
Huckaphony.
UPDATE: SANTORUM GOING TOO!
Confirmed Rick Santorum also will attend Trump's veterans event in Des Moines, along with Huckabee.
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) January 28, 2016