Mike Huckabee Compliments President Obama's Singing Voice, Criticizes Parts of Charleston Eulogy
— -- Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee called parts of President Barack Obama’s eulogy for the pastor killed in the Charleston church shooting two weeks ago “brilliant” and jokingly praised his singing voice – but also criticized the president for straying into politics during his remarks.
President Obama on Friday delivered the eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was killed along with eight others in the June 17 shooting. He also surprised the crowd by leading them in a rendition of “Amazing Grace” after addressing race relations and gun violence in the U.S.
“I think so much of it was brilliant,” Huckabee said Sunday on “This Week.” “He has a wonderful voice. So post-presidential -- I see a recording contract in his future.”
But Huckabee, a former Baptist minister and governor of Arkansas, also criticized the president for politicizing the eulogy.
In his remarks, Obama touched on the debate over the Confederate flag, saying he supported taking it down, and said Americans have long “been blind to the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts on this nation.”
“There were times when I think he strayed into more of a political agenda rather than a true eulogy,” Huckabee said. “I presided at a lot of funerals 30 years ago and before and I never used it as an occasion to do anything other than to focus on the person and the qualities of that person who was deceased and not to make it a time of cause."
