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Duggar-Endorsed GOP Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee Runs To Defend Josh Duggar

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Josh Duggar’s actions as a teen are “inexcusable,” but not “unforgivable,” says conservative Christian and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. “We will run to them with our support.”

In 2012, the Duggar family endorsed far right Republican radical Rick Santorum, but when fellow Arkansas native Mike Huckabee launched his 2016 presidential campaign earlier this month, endorsement from Michelle Duggar and Jim Bob Duggar were literally at the top of Huckabee’s campaign page. 

And they still are.

Three days in to the Josh Duggar child molestation sex scandal, the silence from the right is deafening.

LOOK: After 3 Days Of Josh Duggar Child Molestation Sex Scandal, ’19 Kids’ Producers TLC Still Silent

Aside from right wing websites, almost no one with a platform – including “19 Kids and Counting” producers TLC and Discovery Communications – are saying a word. Family Research Council president Tony Perkins issued the meagerest of statements acknowledging Josh Duggar’s resignation from his anti-gay organization, but that’s about it.

Until just now.

Josh Duggar rose to power within the Republican party faster than even his now-former boss Tony Perkins, in large part because he is a celebrity and supposedly represented the Christian family values the GOP claims to espouse. He can be seen photographed arm in arm with half the 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls, but only one is speaking about him at all.

Mike Huckabee, the ordained Baptist preacher, today issued a scathing attack on the “bloodthirsty media” while thowing his full support to Josh Duggar.

RELATED: ‘I Acted Inexcusably’ – Josh Duggar Apologizes, Resigns From Family Research Council

“Janet and I want to affirm our support for the Duggar family,” Speaking for himself and his wife, Huckabee wrote late this morning on Facebook. “Josh’s actions when he was an underage teen are as he described them himself, ‘inexcusable,’ but that doesn’t mean ‘unforgivable.'”

Huckabee claims Josh and his family “dealt with it and were honest and open about it with the victims and the authorities.”

That’s not accurate.

While Josh’s father reported the assaults to the police, reportedly he waited months or even a year to do so. And once the three-year statute of limitations was up. Josh refused to talk with the police again.

“No purpose whatsoever is served by those who are now trying to discredit Josh or his family by sensationalizing the story. Good people make mistakes and do regrettable and even disgusting things. The reason that the law protects disclosure of many actions on the part of a minor is that the society has traditionally understood something that today’s blood-thirsty media does not understand—that being a minor means that one’s judgement is not mature.”

Huckabee is totally correct there – but ignores the fact that the Duggars created a public image of themselves as a good Christian family.

“No one needs to defend Josh’s actions as a teenager, but the fact that he confessed his sins to those he harmed, sought help, and has gone forward to live a responsible and circumspect life as an adult is testament to his family’s authenticity and humility.”

Actually, again, that’s not exactly correct. The Duggars claimed they put Josh into a Christian counseling program, but Michelle Duggar admitted that all they did was send Josh to work for the summer with a family friend who remodels houses for a living.  

“Those who have enjoyed revealing this long ago sins in order to discredit the Duggar family have actually revealed their own insensitive bloodthirst, for there was no consideration of the fact that the victims wanted this to be left in the past and ultimately a judge had the information on file destroyed—not to protect Josh, but the innocent victims.”

“Janet and I love Jim Bob and Michelle and their entire family. They are no more perfect a family than any family, but their Christian witness is not marred in our eyes because following Christ is not a declaration of our perfection, but of HIS perfection. It is precisely because we are all sinners that we need His grace and His forgiveness. We have been blessed to receive God’s love and we would do no less than to extend our love and support for our friends. In fact, it is such times as this, when real friends show up and stand up. Today, Janet and I want to show up and stand up for our friends. Let others run from them. We will run to them with our support.”

No mention from Huckabee of the fact Josh Duggar went on to a career in which he – just like his mother Michelle has done – spread lies, hate, and fear about LGBT people, and for a living. That’s hardly “going forward to live a responsible and circumspect life as an adult.” 

UPDATE – 05.22.15 1:40 PM EDT:
Breaking: TLC Pulls Duggars’ ’19 Kids And Counting’ From Schedule

 

Related:

Here’s Josh Duggar Hanging With Half The GOP Presidential Candidate Field

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins Responds To Josh Duggar News

Report: Josh Duggar Investigated For Molesting Five Girls, Including Family Members, As A Teen

Josh Duggar’s Dad Reportedly Turned Him In To Cops In Sex Abuse Investigation When He Was 17

 

Image via Twitter
Hat tip: The Hill

 

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Tennessee Governor Slammed After ‘Praying’ for Nashville School Community Without Mentioning Mass Shooting

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March 27, 2023

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Governor Bill Lee quickly drew tremendous outrage in the wake of a school mass shooting where six people including three young children were shot to death. Social media users criticized the Tennessee Republican, who had signed a permit-less gun carry law, for declaring he was “praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community,” without posting any mention of the mass shooting.

Tweeting he was “closely monitoring the tragic situation at Covenant,” Gov. Lee said, “As we continue to respond, please join us in praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community.”

There was no mention of any loss of life, and, as Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts passionately noted, the “situation” was a mass shooting.

“If thoughts and prayers alone worked to stop gun violence, there wouldn’t have been a shooting at a Christian elementary school. It’s your actions – including weakening the state’s gun laws – that’s killing kids in Tennessee,” Watts also tweeted. “SHAME ON YOU.”

Gov. Lee signed a permit-less carry bill into law in 2021, at a Beretta gun manufacturing plant.

According to the CDC, as of 2020 – one year before the permit-less carry bill was signed into law – Tennessee ranked tenth in the nation in per-capita firearm mortality.

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Meanwhile, others took notice of the gun culture Gov. Lee has fostered in “The Volunteer State.”

MSNBC analyst and Bulwark writer Tim Miller commented, “Tennessee governor Bill Lee issued a statement recently about how the drag ban in Tennessee ‘protects children.’ If only he would have instead focused on laws that might have prevented the mass murder of children in his state today.”

Historian Kevin Kruse pointed to an article from last year, after the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, titled: “Rep. Clemmons Seeks Renewed Gun Laws, Gov. Lee Requests Prayer.”

“You chose prayer over gun reforms last year after the Uvalde massacre,” Kruse wrote. “And now here we are.”

The progressive website Tennessee Holler pointed out that Gov. Lee, along with GOP lawmakers, “just appointed Jordan Mollenhour to the [state] board of education— whose company was sued for selling ammo to an underage mass killer (SANTA FE) and sold ammo to at least one more (AURORA) He has ZERO education experience.”

Let’s Give a Damn founder Nick Laparra tweeted, “We are 86 days into 2023. So far, 9859 people have died by gun violence and there have been 128 mass shootings. Meanwhile, @GovBillLee spends his days being outraged over drag queens and CRT and book bans. This is Bill Lee’s and the GOP’s fault.”

See the tweets and video above or at this link.

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Mystery Grand Jury Witness in Trump Hush Money Probe Is Former ‘Enquirer’ Publisher and Trump Ally

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March 27, 2023

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Avid followers of the Manhattan District Attorney’s moves noted the grand jury had been called into service for Monday, and soon news leaked that yet another witness would be testifying in the probe into Donald Trump’s alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.

Monday afternoon, NBC News’ Garrett Haake reported live on MSNBC that the mystery witness was David Pecker, the former tabloid publisher of the “National Enquirer,” who reportedly had been looking for stories in 2016 to protect Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Haake notes Monday was Pecker’s second appearance before the grand jury in the hush money case.

The New York Times also reported David Pecker as the grand jury witness, calling Pecker “a key player in the hush-money matter. He and the tabloid’s top editor helped broker the deal between the porn star, Stormy Daniels, and Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s fixer at the time.”

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“While the focus of Mr. Pecker’s testimony is unclear, he could provide valuable information for prosecutors. A longtime ally of Mr. Trump, he agreed to keep an eye out for potentially damaging stories about Mr. Trump during the 2016 campaign,” The Times reports. “For a brief time in October 2016, Ms. Daniels appeared to have just that kind of story. Her agent and lawyer discussed the possibility of selling exclusive rights to her story of a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump to The National Enquirer, which would then promise to never publish it, a practice known as ‘catch and kill.'”

Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman weighed in, noting, “nothing about that decision [to have Pecker testify] suggests any change of heart on Bragg’s part to indict Trump.”

Former Dept. of Defense Special Counsel Ryan Goodman, an NYU professor of law, notes that Pecker’s “testimony can show the [hush money] scheme was designed to affect outcome of election.”

“He reportedly communicated directly with Trump on payment,” Goodman adds.

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‘Our Children Deserve Better’: First Lady Jill Biden Speaks Out After Six Die in Nashville School Mass Shooting

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4 hours ago

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March 27, 2023

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First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, speaking Monday afternoon at a National League of Cities conference, told attendees, “Our children deserve better,” as she broke the news of the Nashville school mass shooting at Covenant Presbyterian School where three children and three adults were shot dead.

“You know,” Dr. Biden, herself an educator and clearly pained by the news, began her remarks by saying, “I hate to say what I’m gonna say next because you know you’re so enthusiastic and with so much energy and hope and I feel it.”

“But while you’ve been in this room, I don’t know whether you’ve been on your phones but we just learned about another shooting in Tennessee, a school shooting and I am truly without words and our children deserve better, and we stand – all of us – we stand with Nashville in prayer.”

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The First Lady, a former public high school English teacher and currently a professor of English at a community college, was speaking at the organization’s Congressional City Conference.

Watch Dr. Biden below or at this link.

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