Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R.) slammed MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski Wednesday night for verbally attacking his daughter, saying she "can go pound sand."
Huckabee appeared on Fox News where host Martha MacCallum video from Wednesday morning of Brzezinski attacking women in the White House, including his daughter, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for her defense of President Donald Trump's tweet castigating Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y).
"And the women around him? His wife, who has a platform against cyberbullying? That’s a joke. That is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen in this White House, ever in my life," Brzezinski said on Wednesday. "And his daughter, who came to Washington to work for the president and develop a platform for women? Go home. Go home. You’re doing nothing if you stand by this president."
Huckabee said he found it "stunning" that Brzezinski would be the woman lecturing other women on family, marriage, and morality. He added that when he read the president's tweet about Gillibrand, he did not read it as sexual innuendo.
"The fact that some people read that tweet and immediately saw something sexual in it says a whole lot more about the people who read it than it did about the president because those are the exact kind of words that he has in fact used time and again," Huckabee said.
Brzezinski and other Democrats claimed Trump's remark about how the New York Democrat would "do anything" for contributions was implying Gillibrand would even trade sexual favors for campaign money. Reporter April Ryan asked Sanders during Tuesday's White House press briefing whether Gillibrand was owed an apology.
"I think only if your mind is in the gutter would you have read it that way, so no," Sanders said.
"Sarah Huckabee Sanders, I feel sorry for you," Brzezinski said in response to Sanders' defense of Trump's tweet. "I started a hashtag 'support for sarah' and 'get your mind out of the gutter.' I seriously support you in your quest for truth, in you quest for goodness, in your quest for love of country, because you haven't made it there yet."
Huckabee joked he would probably have to "take half a baby aspirin" to sleep because of Brzezinski's attacks.
"She deserves better from other women and it just amazes me that even the women who say they are feminists are doing everything they can to discredit my daughter," Huckabee said. "To her credit, my daughter stands strong and tough and walks into that lions den of a press room every day and I believe represents women, represents the president and represents strength in an incredible way."
"I'm just extremely proud of her and Mika can go pound sand somewhere as far as I'm concerned," Huckabee added.