Huckabee complains Cruz crashed his party

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee wants you to know the Kim Davis rally on Tuesday was his event and Sen. Ted Cruz was a last-minute addition.

"Look, I invited him to come and meet with Kim Davis. It was our event. We were kind of surprised that he showed up. But you know, once he was there, we invited him to come and meet with her. So I’m not sure what the controversy is," Huckabee said on Fox News on Wednesday morning.


Except that the "controversy" was a bit of Team Huckabee's making.

"The program of course, was already settled," Huckabee went on, adding that he was happy that Cruz "was able to come and show his support for her, even if it was at the last minute."

The setting for this storm in a teapot was the Tuesday rally of religious conservatives, who gathered to celebrate the release of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage liceneses to same-sex couples in defiance of a federal judge who found her in contempt over her resistance. While Huckabee, Cruz, along with other conservative and religious icons like Tony Perkins and Kentucky Republican gubernatorial nominee Matt Bevin, Huckabee dominated the event.

Cruz's campaign did not make the Texas senator's intentions to go to the event known until Tuesday morning, the day it was happening.

"We planned, paid for, and promoted the event and Sen. Cruz showed up the day of and tried to take it over. It would have been the equivalent to us showing up at their religious liberty event in Iowa a couple weeks ago, claiming it was our event, and expecting to give the keynote speaking role," said a Huckabee aide, who refused to talk on the record about the event. "First time any of us have ever seen a presidential candidate crash another candidate's event without so much as reaching out to get permission to attend. Bizarre."

Cruz met with Davis, as did Huckabee, but it was Huckabee who made sure to have a spot next to Davis when national cameras were turned on and Huckabee had the mic introducing Davis on stage and concluding the event after the clerk made brief comments.

At one point, a Huckabee aide reportedly blocked Cruz from reaching the microphones as he was leaving the detention center where he met with Davis. Neither campaign would comment on the record on what exactly happened.

