Jon Stewart spars with Mike Huckabee over Beyoncé and Ted Nugent
'Daily Show' host takes former governor to task over recent comments
Jon Stewart confronted former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on “The Daily Show” Monday over recent comments that the possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate made about Beyoncé.
“Beyoncé is such a megatalent,” Huckabee said, echoing a passage in his new book, “God, Guns, Grits and Gravy." “She can do anything. ... She’s got the pipes to sing. She’s got the moves to dance. She doesn’t have to be vulgar in order to set the trend.”
Huckabee, a former Fox News host, recently criticized President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama for allowing their daughters, Sasha and Malia, to listen to Beyoncé, whose lyrics he described in the book as “toxic mental poison.”
“The thing that disturbs me when you see Beyoncé, who is a role model to young girls — young girls want to be like her,” Huckabee continued. “Do you know any parent who has a daughter, who says, ‘Honey, if you make really good grades, someday when you’re 12 or 13, we’ll get you your own stripper pole’? C’mon, Jon.”
Stewart then played a clip of Huckabee performing “Cat Scratch Fever” with rocker and gun-rights activist Ted Nugent on Fox News. The song is full of suggestive sexual metaphors.
“That ain’t about bacteria," Stewart quipped. “Do you see my point? You excuse that type of crudeness because you agree with his stance on firearms.”
Huckabee, 59, argued that the song, written in 1978, never won a Grammy and was “geared toward adults.”
“But today, we have a very different kind of depiction, and things that are perfectly OK for kids,” Huckabee said. “And that’s the difference.”
Huckabee then urged Stewart to read his book.
“Oh, I read it,” Stewart said. “It ain’t Shakespeare.”
Earlier in the interview, Huckabee said it is “very likely, very possible” he will run for president in 2016. He ran for the GOP presidential nomination — and lost — in 2008.
