As current Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew prepares to depart his post, the expected incoming Ambassador Mike Huckabee is meeting with U.S. Senators, hoping to gain their support ahead of confirmation hearings and a full vote in the new year.
Towards that end, Senator Marsha Blackburn – the Tennessee Republican – just recorded a conversation with the Evangelical leader and former Governor of Arkansas for her latest podcast, “Unmuted With Marsha.”
"President Trump warned – and I will use his quote – '[there will be] hell to pay' in the Middle East if the hostages are not released by Inauguration Day," Blackburn noted early in the podcast, discussing her concern for the 101 hostages still being held by Hamas in the terror tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip for 443 days. "I want to have you weigh in on that."
Huckabee replied, "President Trump is prepared to bring something to the Middle East and to the world that even a few years ago people could not have begun to imagine."
He called President-elect Donald Trump's blunt and tough warning to the leaders of Hamas – and their benefactors in Iran – "incredibly important," adding, "I wish it had been said over 400 days ago by Joe Biden."
"A lot of people don't even realize some of those hostages are American citizens," Huckabee noted.
"What Donald Trump said when he just bluntly came out and declared, 'You will have hell to pay if those hostages are not released before I'm inaugurated on January 20,' that is exactly the position that we need to take as a country."
"We shouldn't let some terrorist organization like Hamas dictate the terms of how those hostages are going to be released."
Huckabee added that "the only reason we're seeing movement right now" in terms of Hamas suddenly becoming willing to negotiate a deal to release the hostages "is because I think they know that a new sheriff's coming to town – and this isn't Barney Fife with one bullet in his front pocket – this is Wyatt Earp, and he's loaded and ready."
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