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House Speaker Mike Johnson campaigned with disgraced reality TV Star Josh Duggar, one of several accused sex offenders connected to his 'mentor' Tony Perkins (www.businessinsider.com)

submitted 1 year ago by DevCat@lemmy.world to c/usa@lemmy.ml

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But a Business Insider review of Johnson's social media postings and political affiliations found that while he was busy seeking to regulate private sexual behavior and castigating his opponents as "groomers" of children, the Louisiana Republican was associated with a coterie of right-wing activists with a history of overlooking, tolerating, or ignoring the sexual abuse of children and teens in their own midst.

Most notably, according to a photo posted to his Facebook account and unearthed by Business Insider, Johnson proudly campaigned in 2014 with a man who would become one of the most notorious sex offenders in recent history — disgraced reality TV star Josh Duggar.

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[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 1 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Most notably, according to a photo posted to his Facebook account and unearthed by Business Insider, Johnson proudly campaigned in 2014 with a man who would become one of the most notorious sex offenders in recent history — disgraced reality TV star Josh Duggar.

Duggar, who was convicted of possessing child pornography in 2021, worked as a lobbyist for the Christian evangelical activist group Family Research Council from 2013 to 2015, when allegations surfaced that the former "19 Kids and Counting" star molested several minors, including his own sisters.

Duggar, who was 25 when Perkins hired him, moved his young family to Washington, D.C. to take on the lobbying role, appearing over the next two years alongside GOP candidates like Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, and Bobby Jindal.

"My friend, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, the Pennsylvania Republican who won Louisiana's presidential primary in 2012, will be a special guest at the rally tonight," Johnson wrote on his personal Facebook in December 2014.

"Business Insider's attempt to link Johnson to his misconduct based on a decade-old Facebook post about his attendance at a campaign rally prior to Duggar's conduct being exposed is quite ridiculous."

Since then, sworn testimony and emails unearthed in lawsuits have indicated that church leaders and local GOP politicians were aware of allegations that Pressler had abused minors as far back as 2004.

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