Huckabee Blasts the Media for Reporting on the Duggar Sex Scandal

TLC and the hate group who used to employ their son may be running from the Duggars like rats off a sinking ship, but Mike Huckabee is hanging in with them.

Less than a week after officially announcing his candidacy for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee snatched up a key endorsement from his conservative Christian base - the Duggars of TLC's "19 Kids and Counting."

Now that the once squeaky-clean image of the conservative Christian family has been tarnished as a result of recent revelations of a decade-old sex scandal involving their eldest son Josh and several minors, Huckabee isn't backing away from the Duggar endorsement.

Not only is Huckabee not distancing himself from the beleaguered mega family, he's also got harsh words for the media for reporting on the incident.

"Those who have enjoyed revealing this long ago sins in order to discredit the Duggar family have actually revealed their own insensitive bloodthirst," Huckabee wrote in a Facebook post Friday. "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," Huckabee wrote.

A decade-old 33 page 2006 Springdale, AR police report that In Touch acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request this week, revealed that Josh Duggar was investigated for multiple sex offenses (some which were felonies) that included forcible fondling against five minors. The revelation caused TLC to pull the Duggar's reality series "19 Kids and Counting" from their lineup, and prompted Josh to resign from his post as executive director for the anti-gay hate group Family Research Council.

AP notes that several other Arkansas Republicans have also rallied behind the Duggars, who are still engrained in state politics. Father Jim Bob Duggar himself is a former state representative.

Arkansas Sen. Bart Hester said Josh Duggar, whom he has known for about five years, has been open and honest about the incident with wife, family and friends. State Sen. Jon Woods, who has known the Duggar family since 2005, said the family had put the issue behind them.

"It's between the family members and was addressed a long time ago but it's new to the public," Woods said. "The family had time to heal and now the public needs time to heal."