ATLANTA, Ga. – During a speech Saturday morning, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee praised Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer for coming out against President Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran.

“Thank God for Chuck Schumer,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee said Schumer, D-N.Y., has exhibited “statesmanship in the face of extraordinary opposition from his own party.”

He said it is a “straw man” argument to suggest that the deal is the only way to prevent war, and the United States should never have agreed to it.

Huckabee, a Republican candidate for president, spoke at the RedState Gathering in Atlanta along with several other presidential candidates.

He also called for Congress to pass the Fair Tax.

“With the Fair Tax, nothing is taken out of your paycheck. Nothing,” Huckabee said, noting that the tax would be on consumption rather than income.

He said the Fair Tax would protect small businesses who don’t have the resources to navigate an overly-complicated tax code.

Huckabee said that Planned Parenthood should be defunded, and that the “due process and equal protection” guaranteed by the Constitution should extend to the unborn.

.@GovMikeHuckabee praises @SenSchumer for coming out in opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran. #RSG15 pic.twitter.com/LyZq8hR7sw

— Kate Scanlon (@scanlon_kate) August 8, 2015