Huckabee Defends His Foreign Policy Chops After Carson Slight

After Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said today "not many" of his opponents had foreign policy experience, one of those competitors -- Mike Huckabee -- said Carson need look no further than his biography for a record on foreign affairs.

"I would suggest that he might do a little search on my biography," the former Arkansas governor told ABC News in New York this morning. "I've been going to Israel and the Middle East since I was 17. I've been to Syria, to Jordan, to Pakistan, to Iraq, Afghanistan, to Egypt, to Turkey probably 55 to 60 countries.

"When I was governor, I conducted trade missions, signed deals with international corporations and heads of state."

Huckabee served as governor of Arkansas from 1993 to 2006, as a pastor and Arkansas' lieutenant governor before that, and, more recently, as a television and radio host and commentator.

"Most people don't realize how much experience governors have in their official capacity," Huckabee, 60, said, "but I've been traveling around the world and dealing with world leaders and know many of the world leaders in the Middle East on a first-name basis.

"So, I've been to Israel I think over 40 times, most other parts of the Middle East repeatedly, so I think I understand full well what some of those key issues are."

Carson acknowledged on "Good Morning America" today that "people feel that I don't have foreign policy experience," but he challenged "the narrative that only politicians can fix this."

"The fact of the matter is if you look at all the people who are running, how many of them have had foreign policy experience?" Carson said. "The answer is no, not many. Maybe Hillary," he added, referring to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Huckabee, asked today to name his biggest foreign policy achievement, cited "signing multinational deals with companies like Toyota."

Huckabee also said spending time in Israel has given him "a better handle on understanding how much extent the Israelis go to try to protect innocent life, even beyond what Americans do."