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Is Mike Huckabee racist? Former Arkansas gov says he wants to 'identify as Chinese' to get coke, free Nike shoes

'Those who would mock the very concept of identity and who would attempt to deny others self-determination cannot truly believe in liberty or freedom — and thus they do not believe in the promise of America itself'

Former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee's latest tweet has made Internet users label him a "racist." Many have slammed him after he said that he wants to "identify” himself as "Chinese".

"I’ve decided to “identify” as Chinese. Coke will like me, Delta will agree with my “values” and I’ll probably get shoes from Nike & tickets to @MLB games. Ain’t America great?" Huckabee tweeted.

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Huckabee's argument that identifying as Chinese would endear him to Coke, Delta, and Major League Baseball is an apparent reference to the ongoing controversy surrounding a new voter law in Georgia. After Gov Brian Kemp approved legislation imposing rules on voter identification requirements and limiting ballot drop boxes, many corporations with ties to the state, such as Delta and Coca-Cola, issued statements critical of the voting legislation.

As soon as Huckabee's tweet came to light, people started slamming him. Former FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi said, "this is disgraceful." Evangelist Beth Moore said, "Mike, I’ve shared a meal with you at your beautiful table. I’ve heard you profess Christ as Lord. This is entirely antithetical to the gospel."

Scientist Eric Feigl-Ding said, "Pretty racist and scummy. Hope Twitter bans you for fomenting anti-Asian hate. #StopAsianHate." Actor Andrew Phung shared the tweet saying, "This dude is so racist he’d claim he’s Chinese just so he could tell himself to go back to China. #StopAAPIHate "

One person wrote, "Those who would mock the very concept of identity and who would attempt to deny others self-determination cannot truly believe in liberty or freedom — and thus they do not believe in the promise of America itself." Senior political reporter Asawin Suebsaeng said, "I’ve decided to identify as Mike Huckabee, because I am also a huge idiot who has no skills with interacting with modernity."

Rep Ted Lieu tweeted, addressing Mike Huckabee's daughter Sarah: "Dear @SarahHuckabee: You defended the former President’s use of racist phrases like Kung Flu. Do you condone Mike Huckabee adding fuel to anti-Asian hate? Asking on behalf of Americans everywhere who drink Coke, fly Delta, wear Nikes and watch baseball. #StopAsianHate " Actor Daniel Dae Kim said, "Given what the Asian American community is going through right now, this is truly astonishing."

Michael Dale "Mike" Huckabee was born on August 24, 1955, in Hope, Ark. and served as the 44th Governor of Arkansas from 1996-2007 and was a 2008 Republican candidate for US Presidency. During the Republican primaries, Huckabee won seven states, including the Iowa caucuses, finishing second in the delegate count and third in the popular vote. After some consideration, he stated that he would not seek the Republican nomination for President in 2012. Instead, he became the host of the Fox News Channel talk show 'Huckabee'. He remained the show's host till he stepped down in January, 2015 to consider a second run for the presidency.

On May 5, 2015, Huckabee officially declared that he was running as a Republican presidential candidate in 2016. He suspended his campaign on February 1, 2016. In addition to his political career, Huckabee is a public speaker, a musician, and the author of a number of best-selling books.

Huckabee's past controversies

As governor, he issued more than 1,000 pardons and commutations — more than his three predecessors combined, per the Washington Post. One man was later suspected of shooting four police officers in Tacoma, Wash. "If I could have known nine years ago this guy was capable of something of this magnitude, obviously I would never have granted a commutation," Huckabee told Fox News.

In 2007, he made news when he compared abortion with the holocaust. Huckabee said legalized abortion in the United States was a holocaust. "Sometimes we talk about why we're importing so many people in our workforce," the former Arkansas governor said. "It might be for the last 35 years, we have aborted more than a million people who would have been in our workforce had we not had the holocaust of liberalized abortion under a flawed Supreme Court ruling in 1973."

In 2011, gay rights groups were shooting back at Huckabee’s claims that an inherent “ick factor” of homosexuality plays a part in his opposition to same-sex marriage. According to a forthcoming New Yorker interview released online Monday, Huckabee said, “We can get into the ick factor, but the fact is two men in a relationship, two women in a relationship, biologically, that doesn’t work the same.” Human Rights Campaign Vice President Fred Sainz told Politico that he wasn’t surprised by Huckabee’s comments, and called him “a man who is consistently wrong and uninformed.”