“He says it didn’t happen, you have to listen to him also.”
President Donald Trump all but endorsed embattled Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused of sexual misconduct including molesting a 14-year-old girl while he was an assistant district attorney.
Trump, who up until today had been relatively mute on the mounting allegations against the Republican candidate running for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s vacated seat, told reporters on Tuesday that Americans “don’t need a liberal Democrat in that seat.”
The president appeared to back up Moore’s denial, emphasizing that he “totally denies it.”
“We don’t need a liberal person in there, a Democrat,” Trump said, adding that Moore’s Democratic opponent Doug Jones is “terrible on crime, he’s terrible at the border, he’s terrible on the military.”
“If you look at what is really going on, if you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours— he totally denies it,” Trump said. “He says it didn’t happen, you have to listen to him also.”
“You’re talking about — he said 40 years ago this did not happen.”
Trump also left the door open to possibly campaigning for Moore, saying he will let the press know if he plans to stump for the accused sexual assaulter “next week.”
When asked about the wave of women coming forward with allegations of sexual harassment against powerful men, Trump, who has over a dozen allegations leveled against him that he’s denied, said “women are very special — 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 that’s very, very good for women.”
However, the president declined to comment on the allegations against Sen. Al Franken (D-MN.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.).
Prior to Trump’s remarks, the Moore campaign slammed the media’s coverage of the accusations against its candidate, vowing to press on through to Election Day in December, regardless of top Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s, calls for Moore to drop out.
“Mitch McConnell has spent over $30 million dollars trying to stop Judge Roy Moore. The Washington Post and all of the fake media for the last two weeks has said everything they can say about Judge Moore. They’re trying to dig people up, put them on TV and say ‘Judge Moore’s a bad guy,’” the campaign said.
“Alabamians, we cannot send anyone like that to Washington.”
The campaign also boasted about White House consoler Kellyanne Conway’s soft endorsement of Moore earlier on Tuesday, saying, “By the way, that’s why you saw Kellyanne come out yesterday and say we’ve got to have somebody like Judge Moore,” chief political strategist Dean Young said.
“You know, Kellyanne does talk to the White House,” Young continued.
Watch the president’s comments below, via CNN.
