President Donald Trump on Tuesday discounted allegations of assault against Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore and said voters should not support Moore’s “liberal” rival.
Trump addressed the swirling controversy surrounding Moore for the first time since top Republican leaders called on Moore to step aside more than a week ago.
“We don’t need a liberal person in there,” Trump said of Moore’s rival, Democrat Doug Jones. “We don’t need somebody who’s soft on crime like Jones.”
Trump said he will announce next week whether he will campaign on Moore’s behalf. Trump spoke to reporters at the White House before leaving for a Thanksgiving break at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Six women have accused Moore of pursuing relationships with them when they were teenagers and he was an assistant district attorney in his 30s. Two have accused him of assault or molestation; he vehemently denies it.
Trump, who won election last fall despite more than a dozen accusations against him personally, dismissed questions from reporters about backing a man accused of assault over a man who is a Democrat. Trump pointed to Moore’s assertions that he did nothing wrong.
“Roy Moore denies it, that’s all I can say,” Trump said. “He denies it.”
He also noted that the allegations concerned behavior alleged to have happened decades ago.
“Forty years is a long time,” Trump said, questioning why it took so long for Moore’s accusers to come forward.
Previously, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had said only that Trump “thinks that the people of Alabama should make the decision on who their next senator should be.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, both Republicans, have both called on Moore to leave the race in light of the accusations. The Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have pulled their support for Moore’s campaign ahead of the Dec. 12 special election to fill the seat once held by Republican Jeff Sessions, now the U.S. attorney general.
The allegations against Moore come amid a national reckoning over misdeeds by powerful men in media, business and politics. Trump said he is “very happy” that women are speaking out about their experiences.
“I think it’s a very special time because a lot of things are coming out and I think that’s good for our society and I think it’s very, very good for women,” Trump said.
More than a dozen women came forward in the waning days of the 2016 presidential election to say that Trump had assaulted or harassed them over the years. He denied it. He was also caught on tape in 2005 boasting that he could grab women’s private parts. “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump said on the “Access Hollywood” tape.
Trump declined to answer Tuesday when asked why he does not believe Moore’s accusers.
Jones began airing a new ad Monday that features statements made by Sessions, U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama and first daughter Ivanka Trump responding to allegations of against Moore.
Sessions said he had no reason to doubt Moore’s accusers. Shelby, a Republican, said he will “absolutely not” vote for Moore. Ivanka Trump said “there’s a special place in hell for people who prey on children.”
The ad was the first direct assault by the Jones camp against Moore on the allegations.
Moore’s camp has begun firing back at the media and one of the accusers. His campaign held an afternoon Tuesday press conference to publicly question the account of Beverly Nelson, who said Moore assaulted her when she was a 16-year-old waitress.
The campaign quoted two former restaurant employees and a former customer who said they did not remember Nelson working there or Moore eating there.
(AP)
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7 Responses
A degenerate vile sewer trash standing up for another, politics trumps pedophiles
This site in the past has done a better job at editing articles like this
`It’s something to be ashamed of. I supported Jones from the beginning, but still, is it really better to have a pervert in office than a Democrat?! Jones was the prosecutor against two KKK members who killed four girls in a black church! Shame on the Republicans! What have they become?
You must not hold Trump accountable for what he says. The unhinged man is just following orders./
Yes i would much rather have someone in office who was accused of being a pervert 40 years ago,than having a traitorous America hating leftist liberal,who will open the borders and flood the country with tens of millions of third world criminals and terrorists and who would decimate our military forces and leave America defenseless in front of it’s enemies,and who would bankrupt our country with endless social programs,and above all who would support the murderous Arab enemies in their aim to destroy our God given Eretz yisroel.
CHAIM
Shame on Republicans.
The AP reflects the left-wing media that own it.
The charge against Moore come down to dating someone much younger, but that’s acceptable in many cultures, and is quite common if men are expected to established themselves financially before marriage. It should be noted that at the same time Moore was dating teenagers, the Prince of Wales married a teenager and no one thought it to be scandalous (of course, commoners don’t have the same rights as royalty, according to the Democrats (capital D noted). Moore is accused of being boorish on dates, but boorishness on dates is not a crime – and that was 40 years ago – and he apparently got clever as he got older and ended up marrying a divorcee and living happily ever after.
Given the Democrats view that sexual perversion is a civil right, as often expressed by the actions of their leaders in much more eggregious circumstances, Trump seems to be acting reasonably in saying the election of public officials should be based on ideology, and not on boorish but not criminal behavior 40 years ago.