Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee had some harsh words for presidential hopeful and fellow former governor Tim Pawlenty Tuesday, telling him to give his staff the boot.
In an appearance on The Laura Ingraham Show, Huckabee gave his analysis of Monday night’s CNN’s New Hampshire Republican primary debate. According to Huckabee, Pawlenty’s staff is not serving him well.
“He needs to get rid of some of his consultants,” said Huckabee. “I saw this with [Mitt] Romney four years ago and I’m seeing it with Pawlenty now: over coached, over consulted. Get rid of ‘em!”
Huckabee advised that the former Minnesota governor needs to speak from his heart and ignore the experts.
“Walk into the hall with your heart. Go in there with what you know you believe and what you know you have done,” he said. “Listen to the question, speak to it, if you make a mistake, so what!”
To Huckabee it is less about what the consultants can cram into a candidate’s mind right before the debate and more about the leader as a person.
“Americans can live with their leaders if they make a mistake,” he said. “What they can’t live with is a leader that doesn’t know where his own compass is pointing. And that is where I think Americans and particularly Republicans are looking for on every one of those debate stages: Who comes here, not so much with an index card filled with cleaver answers that a consultant wrote, but who comes here with the clarity of conviction and the consistency of thought. That is what we look for.”
Huckabee added that whoever the Republican nominee is, he will support them over Obama.
“Whoever from our team gets the nod I can assure you, I want them to be the next president,” Huckabee said.