In clip of an interview with Newsmax TV that was posted online today, Mike Huckabee criticized the Pentagon’s move to end the ban on open military service by transgender people, saying that openly transgender service members would “affect morale” because “men are men and women are women.”

“The military is not a social organization,” he said. “The military is not a place where we try out experiments. The military is designed to kill people and break things. The purpose of the military is to train a fighting force to defend this country and to fight our battles. It’s not to fight the battles of sexual identity or orientation. It’s to fight the battles that threaten American sovereignty and American freedom.”

He then compared providing medical care to transgender people to elective breast enhancement surgery: “We don’t do breast enhancements, which would be a part of that. If we’re going to do it for somebody who’s transgender, would we not do it for a female who said, ‘I’d feel better about myself if I was a 38D rather than a 34A?’”

The military, Huckabee concluded, is “not designed to be a social club or some type of organization where we help people feel better about themselves,” adding, “if there’s something that makes it difficult for you to defend this country, maybe the military is not the right place for you.”

Huckabee has pledged to restore the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy for gay and lesbian service members if he is elected president.