Several prominent Republican lawmakers appear in photos with disgraced former reality TV star Josh Duggar, and this a “problem” for the GOP, according to the Washington Post.
Duggar, of TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” fame, resigned abruptly Thursday afternoon from his position at the Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying group, following reports that he had “forcibly fondled” several underage girls, including his own sisters, when he was a teenager.
His parents, Mary and Jim Bob Duggar, said Thursday that they were aware at the time of their eldest son’s actions and that they took action by sending him away to a “Christian ministry.”
Police didn’t find out about the reported abuse until three years later, when an anonymous tipsters brought it to their attention. By then, however, the statute of limitations had expired and no charges were brought against the oldest Duggar son.
Neither Josh Duggar, now 27, nor his parents admitted outright to sexual abuse, but they conceded Thursday that his actions when he was a teenager were “inexcusable.”
Duggar was the executive director of FRC Action, the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council. For the Washington Post and others, photos of Duggar mugging with top GOP lawmakers poses a “problem” for Republicans.
As a reality-TV-star-turned-conservative-activist, Josh Duggar has been seen with noted Republican lawmakers, including former Govs. Jeb Bush of Florida and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, Gov. Scott Walker, former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
“It’s safe to say the GOP’s courtship with Duggar is off,” the Post reported Friday. “The problem: There’s no shortage of photos on Twitter and Facebook of Duggar posing cheek-to-cheek with some of the Republican Party’s most prominent leaders.”
Of the lawmakers who have appeared in photos with the disgraced Duggar, only Huckabee has spoken on behalf of the embattled Christian family.
“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,” Huckabee said Friday in a statement posted to Facebook.
The point suggested by the Post, that photos of Duggar posing with notable Republican lawmakers is somehow problematic for the GOP, was made first by Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson late Thursday evening.
The Post warned Friday that, “Candidates who had been cozying up to Duggar may need to reverse course and denounce his actions. That would be difficult given the Washington-based Duggar’s increasing prominence within the party.”
Neither the Washington Post nor Dickinson have asked whether HBO star Lena Dunham, who has also been accused of sexual misconduct with minors, poses a similar problem to the Democratic Party.
Dunham, who has participated in several “get out the vote” efforts on behalf of Democrats, weathered harsh criticism in late 2014 after she alleged in her memoir, “Not That Kind of Girl,” that she had sexually experimented on her younger sister, Grace, when they were children.
She wrote that she would often bribe her younger sibling with, “three pieces of candy if I could kiss her on the lips for five seconds … anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl I was trying.”
Dunham also claimed that she once pried open her toddler sister’s vagina, writing, “my curiosity got the best of me.”
“This was within the spectrum of things I did,” Dunham wrote.
The acclaimed HBO star continues to shower Democratic candidates with support, stating in April on social media and elsewhere that she would back Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
