Former – And Maybe Future – Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee Says Jay-Z is 'Pimping' Beyonce
In his new book, the former Arkansas governor slams the Obamas for associating with music's royal couple
It’s probably a safe bet that, if Mike Huckabee runs once more for president, neither Jay Z nor Beyoncé will be on the campaign rally playlist.
The former Arkansas governor and Fox News talk-show host – a conservative Republican and musician himself who knows how to get attention – is coming out with a new book, new book God, Guns, Grits and Gravy in which he levels a scalding review of Jay Z and Beyoncé and their explicitly steamy “Drunk in Love” duet at the Grammys.
“Beyoncé is incredibly talented – gifted, in fact,” Huckabee writes in the book, which hits stores until Jan. 20. “She has an exceptional set of pipes and can actually sing. She is a terrific dancer – without the explicit moves best left for the privacy of her bedroom. Jay Z is a very shrewd businessman, but I wonder: Does it occur to him that he is arguably crossing the line from husband to pimp by exploiting his wife as a sex object?”
The former Baptist minister, whose 2008 campaign had to stop using Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” as its anthem after the band objected, also went after the man who ultimately prevailed in that year’s race.
And his wife.
Both President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have talked about being fans – and friends – of Beyoncé, with the president telling PEOPLE just last month that his wife and daughters, Sasha and Malia, “are in their Beyoncé world.”
Huckabee chides Mrs. Obama for this, with a knock at her healthy-eating work in the nation’s schools: “With the first lady so concerned about making sure her daughters’ bellies don’t ingest unhealthy food, how can she let their brains ingest obnoxious and toxic mental poison in the form of song lyrics? If lived out, those lyrics would be far more devastating to someone’s health than a cupcake.”
Huckabee hasn’t announced a decision on trying again for the White House in 2016. But he ended his Fox News show on Jan. 3 just in case.
“I cannot bring myself to rule out another presidential run,” Huckabee said in his last broadcast. “So as we say in television, stay tuned.”