The Ashley has watched Megyn Kelly‘s interview with Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar multiple times since it first aired on Wednesday. The Duggar parents sat down with Megyn to discuss the sex abuse scandal involving their oldest son, Josh Duggar, for the very first time. Many of you Roundupers have asked The Ashley to recap the interview; however, The Ashley didn’t feel that a funny recap would be appropriate, given the serious nature of what the interview discussed.
However, The Ashley did find many of the things that Jim Bob and Michelle said strange and, in some cases, completely untrue, so she wanted to address some of those things for those of you who couldn’t watch the interview.
Warning: This post contains The Ashley’s personal thoughts on many of things that the Duggar parents stated during their interview. If you aren’t OK with that, you probably shouldn’t read what follows. This is NOT an attempt to simply cherry-pick quotes to make the Duggars look bad; these are quotes that stood out during the interview for being odd or disturbing to The Ashley.
1. “He said he was just curious about girls, and he had gone in and basically just touched them over their clothes while they were sleeping.” -Jim Bob
While it’s natural for teenaged boys to be curious about girls–especially teen boys who are basically kept isolated from most other teens–this was not a one time thing. Josh continued to do this, even after trying hard to stop the behavior. Jim Bob’s attempt to minimize his son’s actions as “teenage curiosity” fails miserably.
2. “We’ve talked to other parents and different ones since then, a lot of families since said that they’ve had similar things happen in their families.” -Jim Bob
The Ashley finds this disturbing. Just because this type of sibling sexual misconduct is going on in the families that the Duggars know, that doesn’t make it OK. It almost seems that Jim Bob is trying to say, “We aren’t the only ones!” Yikes.
3. “This was not rape or anything like that. This was like touching over the clothes. There were a couple instances where he touched someone under the clothes, but for like a few seconds.” -Jim Bob
While The Ashley thinks that it was important for Jim Bob to stress that the girls were not raped (as some people are interrupting), his attempt to make light of the fact that his son put his hand up his five-year-old sister’s dress to touch her sexually is troubling. It doesn’t matter how many seconds he did it.
4. “To them they probably didn’t even understand that it was an improper touch.” -Michelle says of her daughters
Stating that these girls didn’t know that their brother putting his hands on their private parts was wrong is just ridiculous. These girls are taught to be super protective of their purity and private parts. They aren’t even allowed to hold hands with a boy unless they are engaged! Because of the strict rules regarding courting the girls were raised with, they would be even more aware that the kind of touching Josh was doing was bad, compared to the average pre-teen girl.
5. “As parents we still loved Josh and we love our…other ones.” -Jim Bob
Hey— when you have 19 kids, it’s hard to remember all of their names…especially if they are just the girls.
6. When asked about Michelle’s robocall regarding transgender people: “I think you actually said pedophile in that, and actually a pedophile is an adult that preys on children. Joshua was actually 14 and just turned 15 when he did what he did. And I think that the legal definition is 16 and up for being an adult preying on a child. So he was a child preying on a child.” -Jim Bob
It doesn’t matter what the legal definition of a pedophile is, because Michelle never said ‘pedophile’ in her call last summer. She actually said ‘child predator’ when referring to transgender people. So Jim Bob’s argument is irrelevant. Michelle accused transgender men of having “child predator convictions,” all while her son was, indeed, a child predator. Another direct quote from Michelle’s call: “[This] law would endanger their daughters or allow them to be traumatized by a man joining them in their private space.”
Yet, Michelle’s daughters were undoubtedly “traumatized” by Josh joining them in their private space (bedroom) and touching them.
7. “I know that every one of us have done things wrong. That’s why Jesus came!” -Michelle Duggar
This was disturbing simply due to the creepy faces Michelle was making while stating this. She got some major crazy-eyes. (Click here to see!)
8. “I don’t know if the rest of our family should be punished for the act of one of our children.” -Jim Bob
Jim Bob fails to realize that many people don’t want to watch ’19 Kids and Counting’ anymore because of this scandal, and because the Duggar parents knew about this abuse and allowed it to keep happening for months and months. TLC is not “punishing” the family; they are trying to decide if they can get enough viewers to watch this show post-scandal to make it worth continuing.
9. “This information was released illegally, so I wonder why all this press is not going after the system for releasing juvenile records. That’s a huge story!” -Jim Bob
We media folk aren’t writing that the records were released illegally because they weren’t. The record wasn’t sealed because it wasn’t made until 2006. By that time Josh was 18 and an adult, and the record didn’t have to be sealed. The magazine obtained the records legally via the Freedom of Information Act. Anybody else could have obtained that report just as easily and legally. Had a police report been made back in 2002-2003 when the crimes first occurred, then it would have been sealed because Josh was a minor at that time.
(For the record, The Ashley does not agree with In Touch magazine’s decision to print the police report with the facts that identify Josh’s victims as his sisters to be visible. She feels that, while legal, that was morally wrong to do.)
10. “We want to be an advocate for protecting juvenile records.” -Jim Bob
That’s great and all but…too bad you weren’t an advocate for juveniles– your own daughters– who were being abused.
Watch Megyn Kelly’s entire interview with Jim Bob and Michelle here:
Don’t forget– the interview featuring two of Josh’s sisters, Jessa Seewald and Jill Dillard, airs tonight on The Kelly File!
To read all of The Ashley’s coverage of the Josh Duggar sex abuse scandal, click here.
29 Responses
I love this family even more now!
I don’t think the public is as outraged with Josh. He was a disturbed minor who grew up in a repressive setting. If his parents intervened and sent him for real psychiatric help as well as the daughters and notified the police, this wouldn’t be an issue.
Agree with you, the public would love to see Josh be well and the victims get help. I think what enrages the public is the Duggers “better than thou” attitude. Came right back and bit them in the bumm!! That’s what ever one is upset about.
I just find it annoying saying that the other children shouldn’t suffer bc of josh. Everyone is suffering because of the parents, they don’t see it, and they don’t seem remorseful.
If this touching business was as innocent as the parents claim it was. Why did the go to the police? It seems if you catch a couple of kids playing “pull-the-pants”, you put a stop to it and have a stern chat with them. Something bigger happened and they got scared and went to the police to cover their own A$$. More to come on this story. I just feel so sorry for all the victims including Anna and the kids.
In the Duggar interview, Michelle made it sound like the boys didn’t babysit, but in these articles it sounds like the boys did babysit, at least like Josh did. Here are some eye opeing articles: ‘The Web Has Known About Josh Duggar for Years. When Did TLC Find Out?’, http://defamer.gawker.com/the-web-has-known-about-josh-duggar-for-years-when-did-1706258269 and ‘The Duggar Homeschool Program’s Terrifying Advice on Sexual Assault’, http://gawker.com/the-duggar-homeschool-programs-terrifying-advice-on-sex-1706406324. Also, do a Search for ‘Sin in the camp Josh Duggar’.
For people who are so big on purity, they sure are working hard to make it seem like no big deal. They won’t let their kids hold hands until engaged, but what Josh did wasnt a big deal. Afterall it was just inappropriate touching over and under clothes.
“We want to be an advocate for protecting juvenile records.”
Wow….for all the things you can be an advocate for protecting on this earth. You want to be an advocate for protecting juvenile records? Wtf? Get your priorities straight, Jim Bob.
And fetuses. Don’t forget the Fetus Fixation.
#2 is basically them saying, “It’s fine because everyone else is doing it.” Haven’t they always prided themselves on being an example for others?
Their arrogant attitude, and the parents victim mentality is infuriating. They actually said that they believe they are being targeted because of their faith.
If they would have gone into this interview and said “you know what, we’re sorry. We screwed up and we handled the situation poorly.” I, and probably many others, would have accepted that. Instead they did everything they could to rationalize and shift blame. I really worry about their children who are still at home. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that Jim Bob and Michelle are going to use this to shelter their children even more. I would not be surprised if they are telling them that the outside world is trying to tear them down. Society is not to be trusted in anyway.
Yeah, I think they meant siblings play “doctor” and stuff like that but this is a completely different issue. A 14 year old boy touched a 5 year old girl. A 14 year old is old enough to know better. After getting all the facts, I have a completely different opinion than I did when this story first broke out. They are just making excuses to make themselves look like victims. No respect for them whatsoever.
Nothing they say changes the fact that Josh is a child predator! TLC needs to cancel this show!
The fact that.. They are downplaying this “inappropriate touching over clothes” yet these girls couldn’t even hold hands until they were engaged, or hug, and couldn’t kiss until marriage.. It just is such a weird message
I downvoted you by accident. I completely agree with you.
I just feel like you can’t trust what these people say I feel like they could be hiding more of the story. I mean, we always knew there had to be a story behind the whole “side hug” thing and I think this is just the beginning of a twisted duggar tale
I agree. I feel like unfortunately this incident is just the tip of the iceberg. I have a very uneasy feeling that there are bigger, much more sinister skeletons in their closet.
I think there are a whole lot of “issues” involved with this situation. I do wonder if the fact that Josh was given “normal” teenage boundaries, would this have happened at all? I don’t know the answer to that and I don’t pretend to understand these types of disorders. Even if his parents were partially to blame, his actions were wrong. If they would have gone to the police at the time this first started, the records would have been sealed. Ironically it seems as if they tried to protect him by waiting until the statute of limitations ended and in turn they hurt him and their daughters even more because at that point the record didn’t have to be sealed. I might get flack for this next statement but maybe a higher power or karma intervened at this point to right the wrong that was done a decade or so ago. It’s unfortunate that they didn’t handle it the right way because now it seems it’s coming back at all involved, including the victims unfortunately, ten fold.
I don’t really have much of an opinion on this. I never watched the show or knew much of anything about this family before this story broke out. I just don’t understand if it was only fondling over the clothes, why they would report it to the police? I would never do that to my child. I would just send him to a doctor that specializes with this sort of thing. Something I do agree with them on is that things like this happen a lot in families. Siblings often experiment sexually to some degree when they are young. Of course, it doesn’t make it okay but but I don’t think it’s fair to say or suggest that Josh is a pedophile or a child molester.
Not trying to be snarky here, but what else would you call a teenager who sexually molested a 5 year old?
Oh, I didn’t know one of them was 5. I must of missed that in the article. I thought it was his older sisters. My mistake.
Yep and some of them while they were sleeping, too. I don’t count that as normal experimenting. And this wasn’t some one off thing. There were multiple instances, months apart. He is a child molester.
Yeah if he was touching a child that young and him being 14, that is definitely not okay He knew better. I was just saying that it was mostly touching over the clothes, he didn’t try to rape anyone. I guess me being someone that has been raped, I get offended easily when people throw the word “rape” around. Touching and raping are two different things.
It wasn’t only over the clothes touching. He was reading to the 5 year old on his lap and he went under her skirt, as one example.
Yeah, I didn’t read that part. I was mistaken. I thought it was the older sisters. I have a different opinion now that I know that.
Do you think the reason Jana still lives at home is to keep her other younger sisters safe from this ever happening again? It was just a thought that crossed my mind while reading this.
Maybe she’s taking on extra mom-duty of the youngest kids since their buddy-group leaders *cough* acting mothers left when Jill and (to a lesser extent) Jessa married? Was it Jennifer who became hysterical before Jill’s wedding, pushed Michelle away and then ran to Jill to be comforted? (I forget which ms. J. Duggars were involved.) If I was her I’d be at the breaking point over (everything, really) people constantly checking if I was courting.
My gut says that something similar has happened to Jana, but it went well beyond the realms of touching over the clothes. I feel that Jim Boob and Michelle (mostly Jim Boob) have brainwashed Jana into thinking because of said incident she is impure and no man would ever want to marry her because of the impurity. As a result she’s forced to be the mother and maid since she’s “damaged goods.”
punch me in the face.