Huckabee on Josh Duggar: ‘What He Did Was Absolutely Unconscionable’

TAPPER: “You have always been very willing to weigh in on popular culture. I remember fondly you and I having discussions about this in 2008 when I covered you. I want to give you an opportunity to clear something up, because you have often criticized Beyonce in particular, and you wrote in your book that her husband, Jay-Z, might be ‘crossing the line from husband to pimp.’ I heard from a lot of viewers out there who wonder why you would say that about Beyonce, but stand by another pop culture figure, Josh Duggar, a supporter of yours who admitted to molesting members of his own family, of whom you said ‘Good people make mistakes and do regrettable and even disgusting things.’ I have heard from a lot of viewers who see a real disconnect here. You’re criticizing Beyonce, and yet standing by not what Josh Duggar did, but him as a person. Can you help explain that to them?”

HUCKABEE: “Well, sure. First of all, I didn’t often say something about Beyonce. It was a about a quarter-of-a-page in an almost 300-page book. It was a bleep, a quick reference to cultural — if people get the whole book, they will get the gist of it. But the issue with the Duggars was not that I was standing by Josh Duggar and anything he did. In fact, I used words like that it was disgusting, that it was unacceptable. I mean, I was very clear that the behavior itself was wrong. What I was standing by was the fact that there were innocent people, including his sisters and others, the victims, who were exposed, humiliated. And there was no sense in which their concerns and their own dignity was respected. I found that the process by which this was released, it was utterly illegal. As governor of Arkansas, I can tell you that those juvenile records should never have been released. That was against the law. Somebody did that in flagrant violation of the law. So, was I standing by someone who did something wrong? No. I said that what he did was absolutely unconscionable. But nothing is unforgivable.”