Mike Huckabee to Rand Paul: ‘This is the big leagues’

Mike Huckabee lectured Sen. Rand Paul about how running for president is “the big leagues,” following the Republican’s testy exchange with “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie.

“I think the questions are fair,” Mr. Huckabee, a 2008 Republican presidential candidate, said on “Fox and Friends” Thursday morning, Politico reported. “When you’re running for president, all is fair in love and war. This is war. This is the big leagues.

“You’re going to have to expect that you’re going to have a lot of fastballs that are going to be aimed right at your nose, and how you handle them is part of the process, it’s part of the game, if you will,” he said. “So any question is fair, it’s just how you handle it. It’s like, the pitcher can throw what he wants. The question is, can you either put it in the third deck or do you rush the mound and take the pitcher on?”

Mr. Paul came under fire Wednesday and was even accused of being sexist after he had a tense back-and-forth with Ms. Guthrie and accused her of editorializing on certain questions. Mr. Paul later acknowledged that he has been “universally short-tempered and testy” with both male and female reporters.

“It’s hard sometimes. During our interview right now, I’m looking at only a camera, I can’t see you. It’s hard to have a true interaction sometimes, particularly if it’s a hostile interviewer,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Politico reported. “I do think interviews should be questions and not necessarily editorializing. If you get two minutes of editorializing from an interviewer that draws conclusions, you feel somewhat at a loss on the other end. You can’t see the person who you think is mischaracterizing a position and not really asking a question.”