Wednesday night's Fox News interview with "19 Kids and Counting" stars Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar about their son Josh's admission that he molested five underage girls, including his sisters, caused the family name to immediately trend on Twitter.
Within hours, there were more than 10,000 tweets with the #Duggars hashtag, and many were horrified by the couple's attempts to downplay their son's behavior:
Several people commented on the awkward six-second pause during a part of the conversation in which Michelle Duggar was asked about the hypocrisy of robocalls she had made in an effort to fight a law promoting LGBT rights, which she warned would lead to transgendered people preying on children in restrooms.
That even drew a response from talk-show host Montel Williams:
Williams also shared his thoughts on Facebook:
There is something very sinister beneath the surface - these are people who basically said they thought they could be as preachy as they wanted because the records were sealed, these are people who seemingly minimize what happened in their home and essentially sent a message to their daughters to smile, nod and forgive. It's eerily reminiscent of the 'keep sweet' mantra in Warren Jeffs' FLDS."
Others pointed out the hypocrisy of the Duggars craving the media spotlight with a TV show but then complaining about the media attention that the case has drawn:
Even "God" weighed in:
Fox News will air more of the interview on Friday night.
If you or someone you know is the victim of sexual assault, call 911.
Support HuffPost
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.