The restoration of diplomatic ties between the United States and Cuba is a wrong-headed bow to one of America's "longtime enemies," Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and Republican presidential candidate, tells Newsmax TV.
Huckabee's reaction Friday came just hours after Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Havana and declared a new era in relations between the two countries, and presided over the raising of the U.S. flag at the just-reopened American embassy.
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"[It's] very ill-advised. Like his Iranian deal, this is another one where we have given over to people who have been longtime enemies. They've been a government that has held political prisoners," Huckabee said on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
"They hold a murderer from the U.S. that they refuse to extradite. Someone who murdered a New Jersey cop and somehow we think that maybe being able to buy cigars and rum real cheap in Cuba is worth giving over our principles."
Huckabee was referring to Joanne Chesimard, who was convicted of in the May 1973 murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and has been living as a fugitive in Cuba, which granted her political asylum. Last year, she was named one of the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists.
"This administration continues to amaze in its complete nature of being utterly obtuse when it comes to how to handle people who have abused human rights," Huckabee said.
"It seems like we reward people for doing bad things and punish people like Israel for doing good things. This administration and its policies won't end too soon for me."
Huckabee is the author of
"God, Guns, Grits and Gravy," published by St. Martin's Press.
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