Huckabee takes victory lap on pope’s meeting with Kim Davis

GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is applauding Pope Francis for meeting with the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

{mosads}“The pope recognized something that the chattering class in Washington and Wall Street will never understand — that Kim Davis followed her conscience and convictions,” the former Arkansas governor told Breitbart News on Tuesday.

Huckabee took shots at those who have supported the pope but condemned Davis.

“While the media elites were slobbering all over themselves because Pope Francis commented on climate change, the pope was having a quiet and powerful meeting with a humble Apostolic county clerk from Kentucky,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee, a former pastor, said the meeting marks a turning point in the fight for religious liberty.

“It may just be a visit from the pope that pushes the out of touch political class in Washington to finally stand up to judicial tyranny and for religious liberty,” he said.

Francis met with Davis at the Vatican Embassy last Thursday, the Vatican confirmed on Wednesday.

The pope said after his trip that government employees have a “human right” not to violate their beliefs in public service.

“Conscientious objection must enter into every judicial structure, because it is a right,” Francis told reporters on Monday while flying back to Rome after his 10-day U.S. tour.

Davis was briefly jailed for refusing to comply with a court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the Constitution grants a right to same-sex marriage, overturning state laws barring the practice.