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Mike Huckabee says he’s never disparaged gay people — or anyone else, really

Mike Huckabee says he’s never disparaged gay people — or anyone else, really
Mike Huckabee
Mike Huckabee AP

Mike Huckabee recently sat down with CNBC to talk about an issue he cares very deeply about: The Duggar family.

Huckabee is a longtime friend of the Duggars. When asked if he still supported the family after their oldest son Josh admitted to molesting two of his sisters, cheating on his wife, and bailing on sex rehab earlier this year, Huckabee said that yes, he did.

“Out of 19 kids, as far as we know, 18 have turned out pretty darn well,” Huckabee explained. “So that’s a pretty good percentage.”

“Look, I’m not going to defend anything of Josh,” he continued, “but I don’t think you can disparage the entire family because one of the members did some pretty bad things.”

When asked if he himself has ever disparaged people, Huckabee was quick to say he never has. He treats everyone with kindness, fairness and respect.

“I don’t think I have disparaged people,” he said. “I feel like I’ve held to a very consistent Biblical standard of marriage. Again, I remind you, the same standard of marriage that not only Barrack Obama, but Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, they all had it.”

In the past, Huckabee has called same-sex marriage an “unholy pretzel,” compared gay people to drug addicts, and made transphobic jokes in public.

Huckabee continued: “It’s just that I still hold the position they’ve held. They changed their mind, they’ve gotten, I’m sure, a lot of wonderful and generous donors as a result of it.”

According to the most recent Republican primary polling, Huckabee is currently sitting in seventh place at 3.5 percent and last quarter he spent $100,000 more on his 2016 presidential campaign than he actually raised in donations.

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