Romney shows double standard in sex scandals
Mitt Romney has jumped on the latest anti-Trump bandwagon, opposing Alabama Republican Roy Moore over underage sex allegations that threaten to derail his Senate campaign — with new polls showing him losing to the Democrat.
But Romney — exhibiting a brazen double standard — needs get down from his moral high horse.
The former Republican presidential nominee was one of the first to demand Moore withdraw from the Senate race amid sexassault allegations — but Romney endorsed a 2010 Massachusetts congressional candidate clouded by his own sexual assault scandal.
“He believes in fundamental American values,” Romney said at a 2010 rally about Jeffrey D. Perry, a former state rep and Wareham police sergeant who lost that 2010 congressional race to Democrat Bill Keating amid allegations that he had ignored a sex assault and even tried to cover it up.
At the time, Romney blasted Democrats for pushing “twisted, distorted mistruths” about Perry from Lisa Allen, who was 14 when a Wareham police officer under Perry’s command strip-searched her.
“He had to hear me screaming and crying. Instead of helping me, Jeff Perry denied anything happened,” wrote Allen in a heartbreaking victim statement.
Where was Romney’s outrage then?
While President Trump did not support Moore in the GOP primary — backing establishment favorite Luther Strange — he is now seen as linked to the Republican candidate who Democrats hope to defeat as another sign of growing antiTrump backlash. Democratic rival Doug Jones is leading the Alabama race since The Washington Post last week reported allegations that Moore abused a 14-year-old in 1979 and attempted to have relations with three other teenagers.
Moore called the story false, saying Saturday that he has “not been guilty of sexual misconduct with anyone.”
Romney, who is likely gearing up for 2018 Senate race in Utah, appears to be positioning himself as the elder statesman of the Republican Party. He tweeted that he believed Moore’s victim, adding, “her account is too serious to ignore.”
But Lisa Allen’s account? That was devised, said Romney, by Democrats who sling mud “in races across the country about the personal characteristics or made-up characteristics that they put in front of voters.”
Romney wrapped up his 2010 barnburner saying, “Well you know what? I hope the American people take a good shower tonight and clean all that stuff off,” before voting for Perry.
Lots of people are going to need a shower after this Senate race, Mitt.