President Trump himself has remained silent while the rest of the White House struggles to figure out how to deal with Alabama’s GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore and the accusations of sexual misconduct with teen girls.
President Trump himself has remained silent while the rest of the White House struggles to figure out how to deal with Alabama’s GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore and the accusations of sexual misconduct with teen girls.
Just days after saying the GOP should be willing to forfeit the seat rather than elect a child predator, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said Monday that she’d rather see Mr. Moore elected than Democratic opponent Doug Jones.
“Doug Jones in Alabama, folks, don’t be fooled. He will be a vote against tax cuts. He is weak on crime, weak on borders. He is strong on raising your taxes. He is terrible for property owners,” Ms. Conway said on Fox News.
But even with the GOP’s tax-cuts bill potentially hanging in the balance, the White House has said Mr. Trump won’t campaign for Mr. Moore .
The president’s legislative director, Marc Short, said Mr. Trump believes the claims of women who have come forward to say Mr. Moore pursued sexual relationships with them when they were teens.
“If he did not believe that the women’s accusations were credible he would be down campaigning for Roy Moore. He has not done that,” Mr. Short said on ABC News’ “This Week” program Sunday.
But then added caveats to his comments, saying there were some questions in the president’s mind.
“He has concerns about the accusations, but he is also concerned that these accusations are 38 years old,” Mr. Short said. “ Roy Moore has been in public service for decades, and the accusations did not arise until a month before election.”
The women who have come forward told The Washington Post that Mr. Moore pursued them when he was a prosecutor in his 30s and they were between ages 14 and 18.
On Monday, Leigh Corfman, who said she was 14 when Mr. Moore initiated sexual contact with her, said she wasn’t being paid to come forward and that she’s suffered from going public now.
“I was a 14-year-old child trying to play in an adult’s world, and he was 32 years old,” she told NBC.
Mr. Moore, a former state Supreme Court chief justice, has denied the accusations.
While Republicans in Alabama have rallied around him as their nominee, many Republicans in Washington have called on him to step aside.
Ivanka Trump, adviser to the president and Mr. Trump ’s daughter and confidante, said in an interview with The Associated Press that she has no reason to doubt the women accusing Mr. Moore of inappropriate behavior.
“There’s a special place in hell for people who prey on children,” she said in an interview published Wednesday.
The president himself has stayed mostly silent on Mr. Moore ’s situation, issuing a statement through White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders during his trip to Asia earlier this month.
The statement read that Mr. Moore should step down “if the allegations are true,” but that “a mere allegation” shouldn’t “destroy a person’s life.”
Mr. Trump ignored questions reporters called to him during a Cabinet meeting Monday morning.
The Republican National Committee has withdrawn their support from Mr. Moore, as have prominent Republican leaders, like Sen. Ted Cruz, who endorsed Mr. Moore earlier this year.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is rumored to be strategizing a way to force Mr. Moore out of the race without losing the seat.
But it’s Mr. Trump ’s actions, or lack thereof, that have created the most questions especially when he’s been vocal in other similar cases.
Last week, Mr. Trump took a far more direct stance on Mr. Franken’s actions tweeting “The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2,3,4,5 & 6 while she sleeps?..”
Mr. Franken was accused by Los Angeles radio and television host Leeann Tweeden of forcibly kissing her during a USO Tour in 2006, prior to his time in the Senate. He was also photographed with his hands on her chest while she slept. He has apologized to Ms. Tweeden and will go through a Senate ethics review.
A second woman has come forward claiming Mr. Franken touched her inappropriately at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010.Mr. Franken says he does not remember the incident.
