Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) said on Saturday that the furious national backlash against Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) is being driven by the “militant gay community,” who don’t represent average Americans.

The Guardian reported that Huckabee — who came to politics after a career as a pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas — said, “There’s been more pressure this week to put sanctions on Indiana than Iran.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Huckabee made the remarks to CNN host Michael Smerconish, decrying statements by big corporations like Apple and Walmart condemning the RFRA, which critics say enshrines anti-LGBT bigotry into law by granting people of faith the right to discriminate.

“The reason that those corporations put the pressure on Indiana and Arkansas was because the militant gay community put the pressure on them,” Huckabee insisted.

He then went on to slam the companies who spoke out as hypocrites.

“I found it a little hypocritical when you have companies — even, and I love Walmart, big company in my home state — but they do business in China, for gosh sake. I mean, I don’t think the Chinese are exactly the paragon of human rights,” he said.

He continued, “You’ve got Apple Computer — they’re selling Apple computers in Saudi Arabia. Is Tim Cook going to pull out of there? I don’t think so. He doesn’t mind making millions, if not billions of dollars, in cultures and countries where human rights are really an issue.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Huckabee is widely expected to throw his hat into the ring for the Republican nomination in 2016. He made headlines earlier this year when he attacked President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for allowing their daughters to listen to music by Beyoncé, which he called “mental poison.”

Watch the video, embedded below: