Fake ‘Josh Duggar Not As Bad As Gay People’ Quote Bringing Ted Cruz Negative Attention


Josh Duggar is the subject of controversy again, but this time it’s not for anything new he’s done. Instead, it’s for a Ted Cruz quote — and furthermore, the quote itself is fake. However, the association is drawing additional negative attention to Cruz, and bringing Duggar’s crimes into the spotlight yet again.

The meme below is making the rounds on social media, drawing attention again to Josh Duggar, who is recently returned to Arkansas, where he is presumed to be living with or near several of his victims.

Josh Duggar -- Ted Cruz didn't compare him to gay people
[Image via Facebook]

“While there may have been an age difference, Josh Duggar’s transgressions are far less an affront to God than what gays do to each other.”

The image attributes this quote to Ted Cruz, before reminding viewers that Duggar’s youngest victim “…may have been as young as five-years-old.”

First, the quote isn’t real. Though this image credits the quote source to American News X, the text was previously on another image, with a different attribution: the Facebook page Stop the World, the Teabaggers Want Off. That page’s description is as follows.

“This page is for entertainment purposes. It is NOT meant to be taken seriously. It is primarily satire and parody with a mix of political memes and messages.”

Many memes from the page take real quotes and adapt them, enough to be satire, but little enough that many people do assume they are real, and share them as such.

In fact, the Inquisitr looked into this and other purported quotes about Josh Duggar at the time, and found no sign Cruz had spoken publicly about the Duggar situation at all.

However, for Cruz, it may be particularly bad timing for the Josh Duggar meme to resurface. A photo of the pair together from Josh’s Instagram account has also been recently making the rounds, and leading to speculation about whether the Duggar family is supporting Cruz for president.

Josh Duggar, Ted Cruz: campaign buddies?
[Photo via Instagram]

However, the circulating copies of the photo aren’t time-stamped. If they were, it would be clear that this photo, too, is nearly a year old. It was uploaded to Duggar’s Instagram before association with Josh became a public relations problem, and while he was still working for Family Research Council — a job that brought him into close association with a number of conservative politicians, not just Cruz.

Christian Times recently reported that the circulation of that photo was leading some voters to wonder if the Duggar family supported Ted Cruz’s current campaign.

Now the fake quote meme is adding to the association, causing voters to question, on Cruz’s page, how he could support Duggar after the release of a police report describing Josh’s molestation of young girls, and Josh’s own admission of wrongdoing.

For example, one voter asked the following question to Cruz.

“I was wondering, Ted, given your statement that what Josh Duggar did with girl’s as young as 5 was not as bad as what homosexuals do. Will you be asking Josh to babysit your daughter?”

The Duggar family was openly supportive of Mike Huckabee before he dropped out of the Presidential race. In a Facebook post (below) last May, they declared, “America needs Mike!”

Josh Duggar'sfamily supported Mike Huckabee
[Image via Facebook]

Later, the Duggar family also joined Mike Huckabee in promoting his DVD series, and have continued to promote his products since his presidential campaign has ended.

Have the Duggars updated their endorsements for President, though? If they’re supporting someone in particular, they aren’t saying. However, Ted Cruz recently spoke on North Carolina’s new bathroom laws, saying, according to US Weekly, that the laws forbidding transgender individuals to use the bathroom that matches their identity are “completely reasonable.” What does this issue have to do with anything? Well, as it happens, Michelle Duggar’s position on the same issue in Arkansas is what spurred the release of Josh Duggar’s police record.

The journalist behind the initial spate of stories is an openly gay man, and he says he found plenty of people willing to share what they knew about Josh Duggar. It seems that keeping that sort of secret while denouncing gay and transgender people as pedophiles doesn’t go over well.

At this point, neither Josh Duggar nor his family has openly endorsed Ted Cruz, but the close alignment of political positions, such as that on sexual morality, leads voters to make a connection — and the circulation of images connecting the two is keeping that connection on voters’ minds.

[Photo by Darren Hauck/Getty Images]

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