Mike Huckabee says you’re a bad person if you enjoy watching the Duggars fall from grace

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee offered a full-throated defense Friday of the embattled Duggar family against the “blood-thirsty media” reporting on molestation claims involving their eldest son.

“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,” said Huckabee, a family friend and former Arkansas governor, in a Facebook post.

Josh Duggar resigned his post Thursday with the anti-LGBT Family Research Council after admitting to “inexcusable” actions when he was 14 – described in police reports as fondling the sex organs of his younger sisters and other girls.

TLC has canceled all airing of "19 Kids and Counting" as the network ponders the show's long-term future.

“Good people make mistakes and do regrettable and even disgusting things,” Huckabee said. “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 (sic) is not mature.”

Jim Bob Duggar said he took his son a year after learning of the abuse to meet with state trooper and personal friend who gave the teen a “very stern talk” but took no official action, and the statute of limitations had run out by the time police investigated in 2006.

“He and his family dealt with it and were honest and open about it with the victims and the authorities,” Huckabee said. “No purpose whatsoever is served by those who are now trying to discredit Josh or his family by sensationalizing the story.”

The former Fox News pundit questioned the motives of anyone unwilling to accept at face value the family’s claims that the sex abuse claims had actually brought them “closer to God.”

“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,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee repeatedly affirmed his love for the Duggar family and said their supporters should continue to stand by them.

“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,” Huckabee said.