In the ongoing Duggar Family horror show, I’ve been surprised by how few of the Duggars’ political allies have had anything to say about them either way. Mike Huckabee came out first to defend the family and Josh in particular, but Huckabee has his own horrific issues with his son and Huckabee is tied to the Duggars in a unique way: Josh Duggar molested his sisters when Huckabee was governor of Arkansas and Huckabee’s relationship with the Duggars has always been extremely cozy. But what about the Duggars’ other far-right allies? What about Rick Santorum, who benefited (?) from the Duggars’ endorsement during his presidential campaign in 2012? Well, Santorum got the question.

Santorum announced his new presidential bid yesterday, because I guess he really thinks he’s got a chance at being president. He does not. But he’ll be a great spoiler. After the announcement, Santorum gave his first big interview to Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos (you can see the video here). And George asked him the Duggar question. Santorum’s answer was very interesting.

The morning after his big reveal, Santorum appeared on Good Morning America, where he discussed his aspirations with ABC News vet George Stephanopoulos.

“I’m ready to do this again,” he said on Thursday, May 28. “It’s an exciting opportunity to come back home…I’ve been working on this really my entire political career.”

Stephanopoulos then brought up Santorum’s previous run for president, during which he had the support of the Duggar family, who’ve dominated headlines for the last week because of a molestation scandal involving eldest son Josh Duggar, 27.

“I’m sickened by it,” Santorum said when asked for his thoughts on the controversy surrounding the 19 Kids and Counting star. “I’m just sickened by it. I pray for those girls, in particular. To have gone through that is just hard to think about.”

[From Us Weekly]

Well, at least someone prominent has made a public statement and specifically noted the trauma of what happened to Josh Duggar’s actual victims. I hesitate to say that Santorum is really throwing the Duggars under the bus though. Yes, “sickened” is a powerful word to use against a closely allied family, but he stops short of saying anything meaningful about what should come next, if he still offers any kind of support for the Duggars, etc.

Next up: we should definitely hear some words from Scott Walker, Ted Cruz and every other far-right Republican who has ever tried to play up their evangelical street cred by standing next to a Duggar.

Photos courtesy of Josh Duggar’s social media.