Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee went on "The Daily Show" to talk about his new book - "God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy" - and a potential 2016 presidential bid, but instead found himself on the receiving end for his recent criticism of Beyoncé.
Jon Stewart slammed Huckabee on Monday night's show, describing him as a hypocrite, The Washington Post reported. But the 59-year-old refused to back down from his assessment of Queen B, whose music he has described as "mental poison."
"Beyoncé is such a mega-talent. She can do anything," Huckabee told Jon Stewart. "She's got the pipes to sing. She's got the moves to dance. She doesn't have to be vulgar in order to set the trend."
As Huckabee frequently has in the past few weeks, he also bought up the Obamas' decision to let their daughters listen to the multiplatinum singer because "what you put in your brain is also important, as well as what you put into your body."
"Young girls want to be like her," Huckabee said. "Do you know any parent who has a daughter who says, 'Honey, if you make really good grades, someday, when you're 12 or 13, we'll get you your own stripper pole.' I mean, come on, Jon, we don't do that in our culture."
Stewart fired back, claiming that was "diminishing Beyoncé in a way that is truly outrageous," and then played a clip of Huckabee playing bass with controversial rocker Ted Nugent to the song "Cat Scratch Fever," a song loaded with sexual references, according to CNN.
"You excuse that type of crudeness because you agree with his stance on firearms," Stewart said. "You don't approve of Beyoncé because she seems alien to you," Stewart said in reference to the lyrics.
But Huckabee responded arguing that the Nugent song "is an adult song, geared for adults," but modern culture has lower standards when it comes to "things that are considered perfectly OK for kids."
"That's the difference," he continued.
"You can't single out a corrosive culture and ignore the one that you live in because you're used to it," Stewart retorted.
Moving aside, the two also talked about Huckabee's new book, which was released on Tuesday, and rants against what he describes as Beyoncé's "explicit" style, questioning whether her husband, Jay-Z, is "exploiting his wife as a sex object."
"It ain't Shakespeare," Stewart said of the book, adding that the 59-year-old's decision to leave his show of six years on Fox News was a "terrible, terrible mistake," The Huffington Post reported.
"Let me tell you something," Stewart leaned in and said. "Go back and beg them for your job back. You have made a terrible, terrible mistake. What are you doing?"
