It’s been just about twenty-four hours since The Washington Post came out with its bombshell report in which four women alleged that Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore had made inappropriate sexual advances toward them in the 1980s. This included one woman who was only fourteen years old at the time she alleges that Moore took her to his home and made her strip to her underwear at which point he proceeded to touch her and force her to touch him, and three other women who were slightly older but described similar conduct by Moore as well as being plied with alcohol at a time when they were below the legal age to drink at the time. As he did in the initial report, Moore continues to deny the allegations even though there are corroborating witnesses supporting what these women are saying by relating how they disclosed what happened to friends and family when it happened.
In the midst of the charges, attention has naturally shifted to national Republicans for their response to the charges, and the responses have ranged from strong and forceful to prevaricating to outright deplorable. Several top Republicans such as Mitt Romney, Ohio Governor John Kasich, and Arizona Senator John McCain have strongly denounced Moore and called on him to immediately drop out of the race. Additionally, the Editors of National Review and Townhall.com Editor Guy Benson have strongly denounced Moore and called on him to drop out, as have a number of other conservative commentators.
Things aren’t quite so emphatic on the political side, though.
For the most part, national Republicans aren’t defending Moore, but rather seeking to distance themselves from him while not fully embracing the charges themselves. As I noted yesterday, many top Republicans such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona and others have said that Moore should drop out of the race if the allegations are proven to be true, a response that Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin rightfully points out to be shameful. As Rubin notes, these Republicans need to ask themselves what exactly it would take to convince them to believe these women. As it stands, we have these women making very serious allegations against Moore and we have witnesses including family and friends who are corroborating those accounts by relating that they were told about the events at the time that they happened. Given the fact that the statute of limitations for either civil or criminal charges has long since passed, this matter is not going to see the inside of a courtroom, and even if it did the evidence wouldn’t be much more than what we already have. So, the question for these national Republicans remains — who are you going to believe, these four women who are alleging something that was obviously traumatic or the word of a man who has a long record of saying outrageous things in public and who was twice removed from the bench for failing to follow the orders of a superior court? This is the test the GOP faces and, so far, it is utterly failing.
Even worse than the prevarication by national Republicans, though, are the responses of Alabama Republicans who are seemingly defending Moore even if the allegations are true.
Take, for example, this comment by Alabama’s Republican State Auditor:
An Alabama state official on Thursday dismissed a Washington Post report alleging that GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore had initiated a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl decades ago, saying there was an age gap between the biblical Joseph and Mary. The Post also alleged that Moore had pursued three others when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s.
“Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus,” Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler told The Washington Examiner. “There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual.”
In the Bible, Mary is the mother of Jesus, and Joseph became her husband. Beliefs about the specific story of Joseph and Mary and Jesus’ birth vary widely in Christian history and across traditions. Mary is referred to in scripture as a virgin, but there is disagreement about what that means. Generally, however, Christians believe that Mary was a virgin when he was born. Joseph is usually referred to as Jesus’ “father” or a father figure.
In reality, of course, the actions that Moore stands accused of, even by the women who were over the age of consent at the time of their contact with Moore was both illegal and immoral, but that’s rather beside the point. One would think that someone using the story of Mary and Joseph to justify the actions of a man accused of molesting an underage girl would be a bridge too far for Republicans, but as Toronto Star political reporter Daniel Dale documented on Twitter, that’s far from the case:
“It was 40 years ago,” Alabama Marion County GOP chair David Hall tells me. “I really don’t see the relevance of it. He was 32. She was supposedly 14. She’s not saying that anything happened other than they kissed.”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 9, 2017
Me: “The story said she said he tried to get her to touch his genitals.” Hall: “Well, she said he may have TRIED to. But we’re talking something that somebody SAID happened, 40 years ago. It wouldn’t affect whether or not I’d vote for him.”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 9, 2017
After a long pause, Alabama Bibb County Republican chairman Jerry Pow tells me he’d vote for Roy Moore even if Moore did commit a sex crime against a girl.
“I would vote for Judge Moore because I wouldn’t want to vote for Doug,” he says. “I’m not saying I support what he did.”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 9, 2017
After a long pause, Alabama Bibb County Republican chairman Jerry Pow tells me he’d vote for Roy Moore even if Moore did commit a sex crime against a girl.
“I would vote for Judge Moore because I wouldn’t want to vote for Doug,” he says. “I’m not saying I support what he did.”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 9, 2017
“These allegations that surfaced today – to my knowledge, they’re all bunk. No credibility whatsoever,” Mobile County Republican chairman John Skipper tells me.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 9, 2017
If these allegations against Moore were true, Mitch McConnell’s anti-Moore allies would have obviously found them and released them during the primary, Mobile County Republican chairman John Skipper tells me.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 9, 2017
Alabama Covington County GOP Chairman William Blocker tells me Democrats convinced these women to tell a fake story to damage Moore.
I told him the 14-year-old became a Trump voter.
“That’s the typical background or profile of somebody they would be using for that,” he said.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 9, 2017
“If they said she was a Hillary supporter, then she’d be more dismissed by the local voters here in the state of Alabama. You’d have to paint her as a Trump supporter to be of any credibility,” Covington County GOP Chairman William Blocker says.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 9, 2017
“Yeah!” Covington County GOP Chairman William Blocker tells me he’d consider voting Moore even if hard proof of sexual abuse emerged.
“There is NO option to support to support Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee. When you do that, you are supporting the entire Democrat party.”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 9, 2017
“Other than being with an underage person – he didn’t really force himself,” Alabama Geneva County GOP chairman Riley Seibenhener tells me. “I know that’s bad enough, but I don’t know. If he withdraws, it’s five weeks to the election…that would concede it to the Democrat.”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 10, 2017
Alabama Geneva County GOP chairman Riley Seibenhener, who called me back, says he doesn’t believe the allegations are true, but if they’re true he won’t support him – but, at the same time, it’s not “forcible rape.”
“I know that 14-year-olds don’t make good decisions,” he adds.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 10, 2017
Most of these responses speak for themselves, of course, but the ones that stand out are those that claim to question the allegations merely because of the time that has elapsed and asking why these women didn’t come forward earlier. As I noted in earlier today on Facebook, there’s a pretty simple reason for that. They didn’t come forward because they were children at the time. They didn’t come forward because this was Alabama in the 1980s. They didn’t come forward because they came from poor families on the other side of the tracks and Moore was an Assistant District Attorney with an up and coming political career. (And most probably was at the time a Democrat like most other public officials in Alabama in the 80s) They didn’t come forward later because they were raising a family and Roy Moore was the freaking Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, They didn’t come forward for the same reason that women and men who have come out with reports about Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and others didn’t come forward. Because they were/are nobodies and the person who assaulted them and took liberties with them were powerful men with powerful friends. It took weeks of reporting for the Washington Post reporters to get these women and the family and friends who have corroborated their reports on the record. Last night, one of the WaPo reporters who wrote the story hinted that there were other reports about Moore they uncovered but the women weren’t ready to come forward. This most likely isn’t over yet, and Republicans and conservatives who defend this man or are prevaricating with statements like “If this is true” are pathetic partisans who deserve to be condemned.
As Rubin notes, the prevaricators and defenders of Roy Moore are hardly a surprise, though:
If you are sickened by this — both the cowering from national Republicans and the repulsive defense of Moore coming from local Republicans — you must not be a GOP “tribalist,” the new brand of Republican who will justify any conduct, excuse any behavior, rationalize any rhetoric, adopt any conspiracy theory and deny any evidence to protect the “tribe.” It’s nothing short of moral nihilism, not to mention disqualifying from public service.
This has been a long time coming. Republicans put up with Trump calling Mexicans rapists, insulting a POW, making racist accusations against a federal judge, attacking Gold Star parents and boasting on tape about sexual abuse of women. They’ve chosen to ignore accounts from more than a dozen women who allege Trump engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior. Republicans have condoned lying, bullying and willful ignorance by a man some of them don’t trust with the authority to launch nuclear war. So would they let a few allegations of sexual exploitation of children get in the way of a Senate seat? You’ve got their answer.
This is what the Republican Party has become. Rather than a party that even pretends to stand by a set of principles, it has largely surrendered to the Trump wing of the party and become a party of sycophants, sellouts, and outright cowards who are now openly defending this man and saying that there are virtually no circumstances under which they would vote for his opponent because he is a Democrat.
If Moore doesn’t drop out of the race, which seems unlikely at this point, there’s very little that can be done to stop him other than by voting for his Democratic opponent. The Alabama Secretary of State’s office has confirmed that the absentee and military ballots with his name on them have already been mailed, and the statutory period during which the state’s Republican Party could have removed him passed weeks ago. Some have suggested that Luther Strange, who was appointed to fill the Senate seat by the states former Governor but lost the primary to Moore last month, could mount a write-in campaign, but while that is apparently still possible under state law, the odds that it would be successful are minimal at best. Given that, there are only two choices for Alabama voters, Roy Moore or Doug Jones. Roy Moore was an Assistant District Attorney who molested a 14-year-old girl. Doug Jones was a U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan members who killed four African-American girls in 1963. Alabama Republicans are supporting the child molester. Let that sink in.
