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WASHINGTON — Despite Hillary Clinton’s “I’m more electable” strategy to claw her way to the Democratic Party presidential nomination, Michigan and Florida can’t save her campaign. Interviews with those considering how to handle the two states’ banished convention delegates found little interest in the former first lady’s best-case scenario. Her position, part of a formidable comeback challenge, is that all the delegates be seated in accordance with their disputed primaries.

And even if they were, Hillary Rodham Clinton still could not catch up with Barack Obama’s growing lead in delegates.

The Democratic Party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, a 30-member panel charged with interpreting and enforcing party rules, is scheduled to meet May 31 to consider how to handle Michigan and Florida’s 366 delegates.

Last year, the panel imposed the harshest punishment it could render against the two states after they scheduled primaries in January, even though they were instructed not to vote until Feb. 5 or later. The party wanted to preserve the historic importance of the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucuses.

Michigan and Florida lost all their delegates to the national convention, and all the Democratic candidates agreed not to campaign in the two states, stripping them of all the influence they were trying to build by voting early.

But now there is agreement on all sides that at least some of the delegates should be restored in a gesture of party unity and respect to voters in two general election battlegrounds.

Clinton has been arguing for full reinstatement, which would boost her standing. She won both states, even though they didn’t count toward the nomination and neither candidate campaigned in them. Obama even had his name pulled from Michigan’s ballot.

The Associated Press interviewed a third of the panel members and several other Democrats involved in the negotiations and found widespread agreement that the states must be punished for stepping out of line. If not, the members say, other states will do the same thing in four years, at the next election cycle.

“We certainly want to be fair to both candidates, and we want to be sure that we are fair to the 48 states who abided by the rules,” said Democratic National Committee Secretary Alice Germond, a panel member unaligned with either candidate. “We don’t want absolute chaos for 2012.”

“We want to reach out to Michigan and Florida and seat some group of delegates in some manner, at least most of us do. These are two critical states for the general (election) and the voters of those states who were not the people who caused this awful conundrum to occur deserve our attention and deserve to be a part of our process and deserve to be at the convention,” she said.

Just as Democrats across America have been divided over which candidate would make the better nominee, most of the panel members also bring personal preferences and political allegiances to the table.

Many are long-standing party officials with close ties to the Clintons. The former first lady has 13 members publicly supporting her. Eight are openly aligned with Obama. Nine others are officially undeclared.

“We have to have delegates, and they have to be delegations that reflect the opinions of those two states,” said former DNC Chairman Don Fowler, a committee member supporting Clinton. “How we get there is very different because everyone sees these questions of who it helps and who it hurts. I don’t think the formulation has been found that will get around the piece at this point.” But he said a solution is probably possible among the diverse interests.

Because Obama is in the lead for the nomination, his camp heads into the meeting in a position of strength. It is possible the Illinois senator could clinch the nomination by the time the panel meets if he picks up the pace of superdelegate endorsements in the next two weeks.

But Obama has such a lead that he may be able to afford to be generous and give Clinton most of the delegates. That would help put the issue behind them and help him build good will in Michigan and Florida heading into the November election.

Still, some of Obama’s supporters think the fairest solution is to disregard the primary votes and split the delegations evenly between the two candidates.

“It has to be a fair process for both candidates,” said member Yvonne Gates, an Obama supporter from Nevada who said she wasn’t sure what position she would support at the meeting. “My definition is a 50-50 split is something that is fair. It cannot be a situation where you give one candidate more votes than the other. In my opinion that wasn’t an election when they didn’t have a chance to get out and talk to the people of that community.”

It is also possible that any vote that recognizes the Michigan and Florida results would legitimize their elections. Clinton has been arguing that she leads in the popular vote, but that is only when both states are included and it is very slim — fewer than 5,000 votes out of 34 million cast.

Her accounting also does not include some caucus states that favored Obama and where the popular vote was not tallied. The measure of winning the nomination is not the popular vote but the delegate count, and Obama leads 1,898 to 1,718, with 2,026 needed for the nomination. Still, Clinton is trying to use the popular vote argument to win over some delegates.

So far, Obama’s campaign has not been giving direction publicly or privately to panel members. The Clinton campaign’s official position has been full reinstatement, but her advisers acknowledge they are considering an idea before the panel to seat the delegates with half a vote each. Clinton campaign Chairman Terry McAuliffe said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that they “certainly might” accept a compromise to seat half the delegates.

If their elections had been held according to party rules, Michigan and Florida would have allocated a total of 313 pledged delegates based on the outcome of the vote. Using the results of the January elections, Clinton would get 178 to Obama’s 67, giving her a 111-vote advantage. As of Thursday, she was behind 180 delegates, so that would not catch her up even under that unlikely scenario.

The plans before the committee will be more generous to Obama. The Michigan Democratic Party has proposed giving 69 of its 128 delegates to Clinton and 59 to Obama, an advantage of 10 delegates for Clinton.

A proposal from Florida would halve its 185 delegates. From that, Clinton would get 52.5 and Obama 33.5, a 19-delegate advantage for Clinton.

“I think it’s a reasonable solution to the problem that was created, and my hope is that we’ll be able to get past this and move on,” said Allan Katz, an Obama supporter who serves on the panel but won’t be able to vote on any Florida solution because he is from the state.

The committee is not bound to select the proposals offered and has authority to reinstate any number of delegates and divide them in any way.

An open question is how to handle the other type of delegates each state lost — the superdelegates who are party leaders not bound by the outcome of the vote and are free to support whatever candidate they personally choose. Michigan has 28 superdelegates, and Florida 25. A total of eight have declared for Obama, seven for Clinton and the rest are undeclared.

Germond said she hopes the meeting will begin the process of unifying the party.

“Probably what we will come up with will not make everybody or anybody completely happy, which will mean that we did a good job,” she said. “It is mighty unfortunate that at this point in our nominating process we are talking about people who did not abide by the process instead of talking about (beating Republican presidential candidate) John McCain.”

Barack Obama, shown here speaking to reporters on his campaign plane Wednesday, is appealing to voters' religious side with a flier highlighting his faith in Kentucky. (AP Photo)

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Barack Obama has a flier out in Kentucky that addresses his faith and his attempts to fulfill “God’s will” — and it could be a sign that the Illinois senator is returning to his religious roots as he gears up for a general election battle.

Kentucky holds its Democratic primary Tuesday, but Obama is down so far in the polls there that he already expects a repeat of his blowout loss to Hillary Clinton this week in West Virginia.

Rather, Obama, the clear Democratic front-runner, is turning his campaign toward November, and some say his latest flier is an appeal to moderate evangelical voters he hopes to take from John McCain.

“They believe they can compete with McCain and the Republicans on the faith vote,” said David Brody, a senior correspondent with the Christian Broadcasting Network, the channel launched by televangelist Pat Robertson.

“McCain doesn’t want to talk about his faith all that much,” he told FOXNews.com. “Barack Obama is comfortable talking about that. … He’s speaking evangelical talk, so to speak, and that resonates.”

Obama’s Kentucky flier shows Obama at the pulpit with a giant cross in the background. Its text reads “Faith. Hope. Change.”

“My faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want,” it says. “But I won’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I go out and do the Lord’s work.”

The Obama campaign downplayed the religious flier, noting similar pamphlets were circulated in other primary states.

Indeed, Obama is not squeamish talking about religion and God. Obama has held faith forums and created a grassroots network of “congregations contacts” — his willingness to talk about faith is one of the things that sets him apart from other Democrats operating on the national stage.

But the controversy over his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright — whose anti-American sermons almost derailed Obama’s campaign in March — have threatened to drown out Obama’s religious message.

Now that Obama has practically disowned Wright and seems to be quickly approaching the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination, religion again could become a key part of his campaign.

Brody said Obama, who supports abortion rights and was endorsed Wednesday by NARAL Pro-Choice America, is not going after old-guard evangelicals. Rather, Brody believes Obama will try to appeal to younger, more moderate evangelicals, who aren’t just voting on the issues of abortion or same-sex marriage. (Obama’s campaign put out a statement Thursday saying he “respects” the California Supreme Court decision to overturn the state’s ban on gay marriage.)

Obama’s Web site addresses religious issues broadly, without highlighting specific beliefs, and it devotes a whole page to “Barack Obama on Faith.”

McCain does not have a “faith” page, but he dedicates one to “human dignity” issues — like overturning Roe v. Wade, “protecting marriage” and shielding children from Internet pornography.

Edward Jennings, political science professor and director of the public policy school at the University of Kentucky, said Obama’s probably trying to answer the controversy about his religious affiliations in time for the start of a general election campaign.

“Why Kentucky? Polls show him way behind in the state, but he is aiming ahead at the general election,” he told FOXNews.com.

Jennings said he could be courting evangelicals, but at the very least he’s continuing to fight the false rumors that he is Muslim and the furor over Wright.

“I think he’s trying to target probably a moveable audience,” he said. “I would expect we will see this in areas where he and his campaign think this could make a difference. I don’t think you’ll see this showing up in New York City or San Francisco.”

Recent exit polls show some promising signs for Obama when it comes to religious voters. Though he lost the Indiana primary May 6 to Clinton by a hair, he was leading his Democratic rival 55-to-45 percent among voters who attend religious services more than once a week. He led that group by 20 percentage points in the North Carolina primary, which he won.

He lost that group in the West Virginia primary but also lost practically every other group.

If pursued, the religious outreach could insure against McCain’s perceived ability to attract moderate Democrats and independents in the fall.

Of course, there’s risk of a backlash for taking this tack — either from Democrats who say religion has no place in his campaign or from Republicans all too eager to revisit his affiliations with the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where Wright was pastor.

Former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a pastor himself, took some criticism for wishing voters “Merry Christmas” in a December ad last year while sitting in front of what appeared to be a white cross.

Huckabee said it was just a bookshelf and defended the ad against what he called misguided political correctness.

Click here to see the Obama flier and read Brody’s blog.

FOX News’ Judson Berger and Bonney Kapp and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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BATH, S.D. — Hillary Rodham Clinton scolded John McCain Thursday for opposing the farm bill, attempting to maintain the sense that she is already competing against the certain Republican presidential nominee even as her chances for winning the Democratic nomination dim.

As she chatted up rural South Dakotans, Clinton largely ignored Democratic rival Barack Obama, who continued to gain ground in delegates needed to clinch the nomination and picked up a sought-after endorsement from former Sen. John Edwards this week.

Clinton noted that President Bush has said he will veto the farm bill, which Congress passed Thursday. McCain also has said he would veto the bill if he were president.

“They’re like two sides of the same coin, and it doesn’t amount to much change, does it?” the New York senator said. “I believe saying no to the farm bill is saying no to rural America.”

Bush and McCain both say the bill, which boosts farm subsidies and includes more money for food stamps, is fiscally irresponsible and too generous to wealthy corporate farmers.

“When Bear Stearns needed assistance, we stepped in with a $30 billion package. But when our farmers need help, all they get from Senator McCain and President Bush is a veto threat,” Clinton said.

Obama applauded the bill’s passage in a statement released by his campaign, saying the measure was “far from perfect,” but “with so much at stake, we cannot make the perfect the enemy of the good.”

The Illinois senator also chided McCain and Bush for “saying no to America’s farmers and ranchers, no to energy independence, no to the environment, and no to millions of hungry people.”

Clinton chose South Dakota for her first campaign appearance since her West Virginia win earlier this week, signaling that she is sticking around until the final primaries on June 3 despite call from some Democrats to close ranks behind Obama. South Dakota and Montana vote that day — the finish line on the primary calendar.

“There are a lot of people who say, ‘Well we should just wrap this up,”‘ Clinton told several hundred South Dakotans while standing on the porch of a fourth-generation family farmhouse in Bath. “Well I’ve never been impatient with democracy.”

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, husband Bill Clinton urged voters to ignore those who say Obama will be the nominee. Kentucky holds its presidential primary on Tuesday.

“Your voice still counts,” the former president said. “They’ve tried to bury her more times than a cat has lives.”

While chatting briefly with reporters as she flew to South Dakota, Clinton stuck to small talk, like describing the deer she occasionally sees outside her Washington home. She refused to comment on Edwards’ endorsement. Both she and Obama had sought his backing.

Later, in Rapid City, she said she had a “great deal of respect” for Edwards.

“He and I have a lot in common … I imagine that Senator Edwards’ endorsement will be of some help to Senator Obama in Kentucky, but I think that what matters are the people who actually vote,” Clinton said before heading to California for a fundraiser.

Clinton said she had not spoken with Edwards but had spoken with his wife, Elizabeth, about the endorsement. She declined to discuss their conversation.

The former first lady has maintained that her West Virginia triumph over Obama bolsters her argument that she would be the stronger nominee to face McCain in key states in the fall.

Left with an increasingly unrealistic mathematical path to the nomination, Clinton has turned to philosophical arguments in an attempt to appeal to the party leaders and elected officials, known as superdelegates, whose support will likely determine the nominee.

Suffering from money woes of more than $20 million in debt and trailing Obama in fundraising power, Clinton met with her finance team and top fundraisers at her Washington home on Wednesday to rally her forces. The message to the group was to remind them that she now has the lead in votes cast thus far throughout the primary season.

Her campaign continues to site a total, however, that includes results from the Florida and Michigan contests that the national Democratic Party has not recognized.

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The Tennessee GOP is at odds with the Barack Obama campaign again.

The state party has released a new Web video targeting Obama’s wife Michelle for saying earlier this year she is proud of her country “for the first time.”

The video — which intersperses clips of Michelle Obama’s remarks with clips of Tennessee residents rattling off the many ways they are proud of their country — drew instant fire from the Obama campaign.

“This is a shameful attempt to attack a woman who has repeatedly said she wouldn’t be here without the opportunities and blessings of this nation,” Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said in a statement. “And if the Tennessee Republican Party has a problem with Senator Obama, maybe next time they’ll have the courage to address him directly instead of attacking his family.”

The Tennessee Republican Party last went after Obama in February, when it posted a press release criticizing his stance on Israel. It also included reference to Obama’s middle name, “Hussein,” and a picture of him in African tribal garb. Those elements were removed under pressure from the Republican National Committee.

This time, the Tennessee party said in a statement it was simply welcoming Michelle Obama to the state for her appearance at a Tennessee Democratic Party fundraiser.

The YouTube video, titled “Proud,” includes Tennessee residents saying they are “proud” as Americans to have the right to bear arms and worship their religion freely. The testimonials also touch on their country’s stand against the Soviet Union during the Cold War and against Nazi Germany.

“And while Mrs. Obama has trouble being proud of the country where she earned degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School and then became a multimillionaire, her husband makes statements that belittle average Americans’ response to the difficulties of life,” the Tennessee GOP said in a statement, referencing Obama’s recent remarks to a group of California donors that small-town Americans “cling” to guns and religion.

The “Proud” video is riddled with clips of Michelle Obama’s controversial comments, made at Wisconsin campaign stops in mid-February.

There she said: “For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.”

She later clarified that she meant she was proud of the way Americans are engaging in the political process, and she said she’s always been proud of her country.

Click here to see the Tennessee GOP video targeting Michelle Obama.

FOX News’ Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON — Barack Obama collected the support of five of John Edwards’ Democratic convention delegates on Thursday, then gained the backing of four superdelegates and a large labor union as he marched steadily toward the party’s presidential nomination.

The fresh support brought Obama’s overall delegate total to 1,896, compared to 1,718 for his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. It takes 2,026 to clinch the nomination at the party convention in Denver this summer.

Edwards, who bestowed his long-sought endorsement on Obama on Wednesday, won 19 delegates before departing the presidential race in January.

Within hours, Obama picked up the backing of three of them from South Carolina, one in New Hampshire and one in Iowa.

In addition, three superdelegates — Reps. James McDermott of Washington, and Henry Waxman and Howard Berman of California — endorsed Obama.

“I believe now is the time to unite behind Barack Obama so we can be in the strongest place possible to win in November,” McDermott said.

Waxman said in a statement: “I have the greatest respect and admiration for Senator Clinton and former President Clinton … It is now clear, however, that the Democratic Party is nearing a broad consensus on our nominee.”

Edwards had been backed by the United Steelworkers Union, which announced it would now support Obama. The union has 600,000 active members, many of them blue-collar workers of the type that have favored Clinton in recent primaries.

Obama also picked up the personal endorsement of superdelegate Larry Cohen, the president of the Communication Workers of America union.

Campaigning in Rapid City, S.D., Clinton spoke for the first time about Edwards’ endorsement.

“I have a great deal of respect for Senator Edwards,” she said in response to reporters’ questions. “He and I have a lot in common … I imagine that Senator Edwards’ endorsement will be of some help to Senator Obama in Kentucky, but I think that what matters are the people who actually vote.”

Clinton said she had not spoken with Edwards but had spoken with his wife, Elizabeth, about the endorsement. Clinton declined to discuss their conversation.

The delegate and labor support came despite Obama’s overwhelming defeat in Tuesday’s primary in West Virginia, and suggested that Clinton’s argument that she would be a better general election candidate was not finding a receptive audience.

The former first lady is favored to win next week’s primary in Kentucky, while Obama is expected to win in Oregon the same day.

The delegates won by Edwards are not bound by his endorsement of Obama, but several said it is important to their decision.

“I will cast my vote for who John Edwards asks me to,” said Robert Groce, a South Carolina delegate won by Edwards.

Arlene Prather-O’Kane, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, said she is a backer of Edwards but “I will support who he is endorsing — which is Barack.”

With the primary season winding down, both Clinton and Obama have turned their attention increasingly to the superdelegates, the members of Congress and other party officials who have seats at the convention by virtue of their positions.

Obama long trailed Clinton among superdelegates, but overtook her last week, and has pulled further away despite suffering one of his worst defeats in the campaign in West Virginia.

Clinton spent the day campaigning in South Dakota, one of two states that closes out the primary season on June 3. Obama was home in Chicago.

Both rivals had avidly sought Edwards’ endorsement, particularly in the weeks after he dropped out of the race. The former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential nominee had campaigned as a champion of the working class, and in the wake of his departure, Clinton consistently drew more blue-collar votes than Obama did.

“We are here tonight because the Democratic voters have made their choice, and so have I,” Edwards said Wednesday to thunderous applause from an audience in Grand Rapids, Mich. He said Obama “stands with me” in a fight to cut poverty in half within 10 years, a claim Obama confirmed moments later.

Thursday: President Bush addresses the Knesset in Jerusalem. (AP Photo)

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The White House denied Thursday that President Bush was focusing on Barack Obama when — during a speech to the Israeli parliament — he criticized politicians who would speak to terrorists and their backers.

In his speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, Bush said anyone who claims that talking with terrorists will result in peace is experiencing a “foolish delusion.”

“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history,” the president said.

While Bush never mentioned Obama by name, “aggressive personal diplomacy” with Iran is an oft-stated proposal by Obama as a means to end that country’s support for insurgency in Iraq and its nuclear programs.

Obama swiftly criticized Bush for a “false political attack” and said the president’s foreign policy has failed to secure the U.S. or Israel.

“Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power — including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy — to pressure countries like Iran and Syria. George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president’s extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel,” Obama said.

Even Hillary Clinton, who has herself criticized Obama for his diplomatic positions, piled on.

“President Bush’s comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is both offensive and outrageous, on the face of it and especially in light of his failures in foreign policy,” she said. “This is the kind of statement that has no place in any presidential address and certainly to use an important moment like the 60th anniversary celebration of Israel to make a political point seems terribly misplaced.”

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, who had not heard Obama’s reaction when she spoke, said the president has long opposed direct talks with the nation’s enemies and Obama was not the focus of the criticism. However, senior administration officials said the president’s remarks are inclusive of Obama and other Democrats who would negotiate with Iran, Syria or other terrorist-sponsoring states.

“I understand when you are running for office sometimes you think the world revolves around you. That is not always true and it is not true in this case. The president is president regardless of an election cycle and he is going to be president of the United States through January 20, 2009,” Perino said.

“We are not going to change policy based on the ‘08 election. We are not going to stop talking about the ideals of the United States because there is an ‘08 election. They can fight it out over there but this is not new policy.”

Independent Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, a John McCain supporter, heralded the president’s remarks.

“President Bush got it exactly right today when he warned about the threat of Iran and its terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. It is imperative that we reject the flawed and naïve thinking that denies or dismisses the words of extremists and terrorists when they shout ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel,’ and that holds that– if only we were to sit down and negotiate with these killers — they would cease to threaten us. It is critical to our national security that our commander-in-chief is able to distinguish between America’s friends and America’s enemies, and not confuse the two,” he said.

But dissatisfied with Bush’s remarks, several Democrats issued statements critical of the president. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said presumptive Republican nominee McCain should disavow them.

“Bush’s outrageous comments are an embarrassment to our country, not based in fact and bring us no closer to our goal of ending terrorist attacks against Israel and bringing peace to the region. If John McCain is really serious about being a different kind of Republican, he’ll denounce these remarks in the strongest terms possible,” he said in a statement.

McCain countered that Obama’s approach to foreign policy is ripe for questioning.

“I think Barack Obama needs to sit down and explain why he wants to talk with a man who is the head of a government that is a state sponsor of terror, that is responsible for the killing of brave young Americans, who wants to wipe Israel off the map, denies the Holocaust. That is what I think that Senator Obama ought to explain to the American people,” he said while on a bus to the airport.

“It is a serious error on the part of Senator Obama that shows naiveté and inexperience and lack of judgment to say that he wants to sit down across the table from an individual who leads a country who says that Israel is a stinking corpse, that is dedicated to the extinction of Israel. My question is what does he want to talk about?”

Other Democrats also stepped up quickly to criticize the president. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who hasn’t yet declared her support for a Democratic candidate, called Bush’s remarks “unworthy.”

Pelosi, who traveled last year to Syria and declared “the road to Damascus is a road to peace,” said U.S. politicians have a tradition of not criticizing the president when he’s on foreign soil, and she wishes Bush would respect that tradition in kind.

She added that any serious person should disassociate himself from the president’s remarks, but did not say if she meant McCain specifically.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, called Bush’s comments a slander on Obama, and accused him of ignoring his own administration’s efforts to engage Iran in mid-level negotiations.

“President Bush is still playing the disgusting and dangerous political game Karl Rove perfected which is insulting to every American and disrespectful to our ally Israel. George Bush should be making Israel secure, not slandering Barack Obama from the Knesset. If George Bush believes engagement with is appeasement, the first thing he should do when he comes home is demand the resignation of his own Cabinet. Secretary Gates and Secretary Rice have both favored negotiations with Iran,” he said

Clinton earlier said McCain will produce more of the same failed Bush policies, which she described as weakening the military, national security and U.S. standing in the world.

Commenting on Obama’s reaction, former Massachusetts Gov. and McCain rival Mitt Romney said that he is reminded of the saying that the dog that barks on the other side of the fence is the one that was hit by the rock.

“I’m a little surprised that Barack Obama would stand up and say, ‘Hey, you’re talking about me.’ But after all, in this case, you do have Hamas that has endorsed Senator Barack Obama’s campaign and you also have Barack Obama saying that if he’s president, in his first year, he would meet with (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad and with (Syrian President Bashar al-) Assad,” Romney told FOX News.

“These are two state sponsors of Hamas and Hezbollah, terrorist organizations. (Obama) has not said he’s going to meet with Hamas itself but he has of course has said he’d meet with those groups that are funding Hamas and Hezbollah … I just think Barack Obama is wrong to meet personally with these leaders,” he continued.

FOX News’ Anne Marie Riha and Aaron Bruns contributed to this report.