When presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made controversial statements about Jay-Z and Beyoncé that mostly amounted to thinly-veiled racism and misogyny, we figured that would be the end of the discussion. Huckabee's PR people would likely steer him away from the topic for the next couple years.

We were wrong. In an interesting counter-move, those same PR people put Huckabee on the stand, so to speak.

He squared off against ex-Destiny's Child singer Michelle Williams during a Thursday episode of The View to debate... something.

For context, here are the remarks from his unreleased memoir:

"Beyonce is incredibly talented - gifted, in fact," Huckabee wrote (via Jezebel). "She has an exceptional set of pipes and can actually sing. She is a terrific dancer - without the explicit moves best left for the privacy of her bedroom. Jay-Z is a very shrewd businessman, but I wonder: Does it occur to him that he is arguably crossing the line from husband to pimp by exploiting his wife as a sex object?"

When speaking to Williams on television, Huckabee offered a much tamer critique.

"She doesn't need to do songs like 'Partition' and 'Drunk in Love' in order to be an effective and an amazing talent," Huckabee said (via Billboard).

Williams missed her chance to verbally destroy a fool who seems keen on pressing the "Beyoncé is a sexual deviant" narrative, but she at least countered his claim.

"As someone who has definitely come up in a group with her, I just feel like that album and those songs is that one moment where she decided to probably do some songs she's always wanted to do to shed that 'I'm a good girl...' She had some freedom and she owned it and she took it, so I was definitely offended -- I'm not the Carter spokesperson," Williams said.

She also made a feeble attempt at wrist-slapping while also trying to stay on friendly terms.

"To hear some of those comments that you said, I thought were very, very, very low," Williams said. "I respect you and this is not to throw mud and tomatoes."

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