(a contentious exchange Tuesday at an Iowa campaign event)

LADY: You talk about children. What’s your views on child abuse?

HUCK: I don’t know of anybody who’s for it. I think it’s abominable practice that anybody to abuse a child. I think the ultimate form of child abuse in this country is abortion. It’s the most irreversible form of child abuse. But the abuse of any child, Regardless of what age, is unacceptable.

LADY: How come you support it then?

HUCK: How come what?

LADY: You support it.

HUCK: Now why on earth would you say I support child abuse?

LADY: You support it on your websites. When the Duggars came out and their son had molested the child, you more or less said that you felt sorry for the parents. Their parents let it continue for a year.

HUCK: I’m going to stop you — no. Let me stop you. Because you’re accusing me of supporting child abuse and I’m going to take you on with that because that hurts my feelings and it’s absolutely —

LADY: It hurts my feelings too that somebody like you are [sic] running for the American public.

HUCK: Ma’am, let me tell you something. You have no idea what you are talking about. You don’t know that family, and I do. You don’t know them. I’ve never supported child abuse.

LADY: So do you — so do you —

HUCK: Let me finish! Let. Me. Finish! You bet I can. This is my event. You accused me of supporting child abuse —

LADY: Oh, it’s all right, it’s your event — but if somebody disagrees with you —

HUCK: Ma’am, I’m going to finish. You do not know that family. I do. I never supported anything that happened to those daughters. I supported the fact that those daughters were maliciously and savagely abused, not just by their brother but by the news media who exploited them for their own purpose without regard for what it was doing to those young ladies.

HUCK: I know them. I’ve known them since they were babies. And you don’t. And you don’t know those parents. And you don’t know what those parents did. Or how they worked to try to take care of their entire family. You don’t know.

LADY: Locking those girls in their room? So Josh wouldn’t—

HUCK: You know because you read Tabloids. You read People magazine. You don’t know.

LADY: You know what?

HUCK: No, You know what? You’ve come in here to confront me, which is fine. But you cannot abuse, which is what you’re doing, the reputation of a godly family, who had been through hell because the son of theirs, one of their many children, did something evil and sinful— that nobody is backing up and supporting.

HUCK: But I would support any family who tries to work through their problems under the Grace of God. And as a Christian, as someone who believes that if a person has a problem in their family, that somehow they’re fair game, to be criticized without people knowing what the heck they’re talking about — So I’m gonna ask you to stop talking about them unless you personally know them.

LADY: The parents knew about it. They let it go on for over a year.

HUCK: They stopped it. And they began to seek treatment. You know not what you talk about, ma’am.

HUCK: You got what you wanted. You made a scene. We’re all very delighted that you were able to come and get your pound of flesh out of family that has been through a living hell. I hope you never have a child that has a problem.