Huckabee under fire from far-right for meeting with Jonathan Pollard

Figures on isolationist wing of MAGA movement demand Trump fire Ambassador Mike Huckabee over his clandestine meeting with ex-spy Jonathan Pollard.

By World Israel News Staff

American Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee came under fire recently, including calls for his termination, over a clandestine meeting with former spy Jonathan Pollard.

Last week, it was revealed that Huckabee had hosted Pollard at the US Embassy in Jerusalem this July.

Pollard later confirmed that the meeting took place, emphasizing that he had requested it in order to “thank him for his efforts to secure my release.”

Prior to his parole in 2015, Huckabee had lobbied for Pollard’s release from prison.

Arrested in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison for passing on classified military information to Israel – the harshest punishment ever handed down for espionage on behalf of a friendly government – Pollard served 30 years before he was paroled.

Pollard has in the past claimed that the information he transferred to his handlers was supposed to be shared with Israel, under the 1983 Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries.

Nevertheless, the scandal strained tensions between Israel and the US, and culminated in a life sentence for Pollard.

Following reports of the July meeting, far-right figures publicly called on President Donald Trump to fire Huckabee.

“Immediately recall Ambassador Huckabee, he is out of control,” wrote former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

On his show, The War Room, Bannon spoke with former naval intelligence officer and former OANN presenter Jack Posobiec about the meeting, with both men insisting Huckabee resign or be recalled.

“Why isn’t he already on a plane back to get reprimanded by the president and fired?” Bannon asked.

“You can’t sit down with traitors,” Posobiec said.

“This is shocking behavior from a United States ambassador,” podcaster Tucker Carlson wrote on X. “Is Huckabee going to explain it?”

Far-right social media influencer Mike Cernovich decried the meeting, writing on X: “There is no universe where it’s appropriate for Mike Huckabee, who is supposed to be OUR AMBASSADOR and serve our country’s interest, is meeting with Jonathan Pollard, who to this day encourages spying on the U.S.”

Former Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, who was briefly nominated by Trump for US Attorney General and now hosts a show on OAN, castigated Pollard over his “treasonous” behavior, and slammed Huckabee for downplaying the meeting.

In a statement to OANN, Huckabee said the meeting wasn’t a “big deal.”

“Nothing secret about it. He did a terrible crime and went to prison for 35 years for doing it,” Huckabee said of Pollard.

“He wanted to thank me for being nice to his wife (she passed away) when I had met her.”

Reflecting on the incident, Gaetz argued that it pointed to a larger pattern of the United States behaving as a “supplicant” to Israel.

The White House responded to the attacks on Huckabee, stating that President Trump “stands by our ambassador…and all that he is doing for the United States and Israel.”