Huckabee defends comments as Miley Cyrus, Cosmo weigh in

(CNN) - As more female voices are joining the clamor against him, Mike Huckabee is speaking out against critics, who, he says, distorted his comments on women.

"My whole point was that the women I know are intelligent, thoughtful, educated, capable of running things, capable of making big decisions - and they didn’t need the government to hold their hands. They were not victims of their gender," said the former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate.

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Huckabee was speaking Saturday on Fox News, where he hosts a talk show.

The controversy began with Huckabee's comments at the Republican National Committee luncheon Thursday, where he attacked Democrats' "War on Women" rhetoric, arguing Republicans do not have a "war on women," but a "war for women - for them to be empowered to be something other than victims of their gender."

He went on to use language that many have questioned.

"If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it," he said Thursday.

He defended that idea Saturday - and criticized today's "Twitter culture" for misconstruing his position.

"You cannot reduce thoughtful discussions to 140 characters and carry on what I would call an intellectually responsible conversation," he said.

"Democrats are the ones who have denigrated women and demeaned them. They are the ones who have made them appear that their real interests are not jobs, safe neighborhoods and good schools for their kids, and for a better country and for more liberty, that what they’ve got to have is a prescription for birth control and getting a free abortion," he added later.

The comments come as female voices turned up their criticisms.

Cosmopolitan, the women's lifestyle magazine, slammed Huckabee in a post on their site and encouraged readers to weigh in on Twitter with the hashtag #CantControlMyLibido.

Soon, the topic was trending as the magazine retweeted readers' and tweeted its own pithy comments.

An hour and a half later, among those readers was the pop star Miley Cyrus.

"hey @Cosmopolitan I'm just sitting around unable to control my 'libido' & my 'reproductive system.' WBU? How's your Friday?" tweeted Cyrus in a post that drew thousands of retweets.

"Sexing randoms, the usual #CantControlMyLibido," replied Cosmo.

As the hashtag gained steam, other magazines and media companies started participating in the conversation.

"Sorry Huckabee RT @annabreslaw I was voted "Most Likely To Grind All Up Ons Things" because I #cantcontrolmylibido @GovMikeHuckabee," tweeted another women’s lifestyle magazine, Marie Claire.

"Gmail crashed because I #CantControlMyLibido @Cosmopolitan," tweeted fashion magazine Elle, in reference to a Google outage Friday afternoon.

"Miley Cyrus' #CantControlMyLibido tweet to @Cosmopolitan is everything (take that, Mike Huckabee): http://eonli.ne/1hU3Jrk," tweeted E!, the entertainment channel.