Speaking at the conservative "Freedom Summit" in New Hampshire on Saturday, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he's beginning to believe that there's "more freedom in North Korea sometimes than there is in the United States."
The quote — which the audience did not laugh at and didn't appear to be a joke — was in reference to TSA patdowns and security procedures at the airport.
"When I go to the airport, I have to get in the surrender position," Huckabee said while holding up his hands. "People put hands all over me. And I have to provide photo ID in a couple of different forms and prove that I really am not going to terrorize the airplane."
"But if I want to go vote, I don't need a thing," he added, referencing Republican-led efforts to require government-issued identification in order to vote, an effort Democrats have said would only suppress voting rights.
To be fair to Huckabee, he was using the reference to North Korea to make his larger point about voter ID — agree with it or not — but plenty have taken him to task for such a crude comparison.
Besides being one of the most cruel and repressive regimes in the world, North Korea has plenty of citizens who probably wouldn't mind a patdown at the airport, as opposed to the real human rights violations of concentration camps, torture, and famine.
The video is here, via CSPAN (North Korea quote at 17:09).