Former Gov. Says 'Militant Gay Community' Has Gotten Big Business in Its Pocket

Many Republicans may be backing down on the issue of religious freedom, but former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is not one of them.

In an interview with CNN's Michael Smerconish Saturday morning, Huckabee backed up his assertion that gay rights activists “won’t stop until there are no more churches, until there are no more people who are spreading the Gospel,” and he defended the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act that caused such extreme outrage over the past two weeks.

Huckabee said there's an important distinction between "discrimination" and "discretion," and that religious freedom laws do not promote segregation-style discrimination.

He noted that the issue wasn't limited to Christians and gay marriage, saying, "try going to a Muslim bakery and see if they will bake a same-sex wedding cake," a tactic Steven Crowder actually tried last week.

But while opposition to the Indiana law was strong, Smerconish noted that the pressure that seemed to prompt Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson to enact clarifications to their states' religious freedom laws came from businesses.

Angie's List cancelled a $40 million Indianapolis headquarters project in the wake of Indiana's law, while companies as big as Walmart and Apple came out against the law.

Huckabee said those moves by big businesses merely demonstrate the unyielding strength of the gay rights movement.

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

Watch the full interview below:

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