Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) appeared on Hannity before Christmas to blast President Joe Biden for ignoring record cold and a deadly winter storm in Buffalo, New York that caused thousands of flight cancellations while he vacations in tropical St. Croix over the holidays.

Huckabee complained that Biden couldn't even be bothered to fly back to Washington, D.C. to sign the bloated $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package passed by Congress, which promises to keep inflation high well into 2023.

Instead, he had Air Force One fly the bill down to him and signed it without leaving the warmth of the islands.

The storm killed dozens, investigation ongoing

"Basically what it says is Joe Biden doesn't give a rip what's happening to the American public," he said. "I mean, he could have at least filled up Air Force One with a bunch of people from Buffalo, New York, and taken them down to the U.S. Virgin Islands for some time in the sun. That would have been nice."

39 people died in the Buffalo area due to the storm, which dumped feet of snow on the region combined with hurricane-force winds that knocked out power and record-cold temperatures that gave those stranded little chance of survival in their cars or homes after the power went out.

Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz called the city's response to the blizzard "embarrassing." The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is conducting an investigation into the storm response jointly with the North American Reliability Corporation, an Atlanta-based energy compliance nonprofit.

Omnibus a bad bill

Huckabee said the omnibus should never have been signed, and that Republicans shoulder some of the blame because they believed Democrats when they said it was an "emergency" to pass it before the new year, when the House will have a Republican majority.

"[They] went with it all because they said it was an emergency … it's such an emergency that Biden took off and let that bill sit there on his desk," he said.

Huckabee acknowledged that the bill had a few good things in it, but was mostly "rat poison" ruining a stew.

"The question is, do we really want to eat it? And I'd say I don't think so. So why are we pushing this when there's so much rat poison in this $1.7 trillion omnibus bill that had to be flown down?" he went on.

He likes McCarthy for speaker

Huckabee went on to endorse current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (D-CA) as the next House Speaker.

"Yes. Let [McCarthy] be speaker. He'll do fine. He'll do great," Huckabee said.

"Most importantly, I think we've got some good people chairing those committees who will launch the investigations that absolutely have to happen and quit playing softball with the Democrats," he added.

McCarthy is short a small number of adamant and vocal votes that he needs to win the speakership, but most think he will eventually be named speaker since he is the strongest candidate with the most support.