Moore denies sexual misconduct, but election risk concerns GOP
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – His party suddenly and bitingly divided, Alabama Republican Roy Moore emphatically rejected increasing pressure to abandon his Senate bid Friday as fears grew among GOP leaders that a once safe Senate seat was in jeopardy just a month before a special election.
Moore, an outspoken Christian conservative and former state Supreme Court judge, attacked a Washington Post report that he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl and pursued three other teenagers decades earlier as “completely false and misleading.”
In an interview with conservative radio host Sean Hannity, he did not wholly rule out dating teenage girls when he was in his early 30s.
Asked if that would have been usual for him, Moore said, “Not generally, no.”
“I don’t remember ever dating any girl without the permission of her mother,” he said.
As for the encounter with 14-yearold Leigh Corfman, as described by Corfman in Thursday’s Post article, Moore said: “It never happened.”
The story has produced a wave of concern among anxious GOP officials in Washington but little more than a collective shrug from many Republicans in Alabama, which holds a special election Dec. 12 to fill the seat previously held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Republican operatives believe the Alabama Senate seat, held by the GOP for the last 20 years, is now at risk.
They fear the controversy could exacerbate the party’s broader Trumpera challenge in appealing to collegeeducated suburban voters — the same group that fueled a big Democratic victory in the Virginia governor’s race this week.
In the immediate aftermath of the Post report Thursday, a wave of national Republican leaders called for Moore to drop out of the race if the allegations are true. They included the White House; the head of the House Freedom Caucus, Mark Meadows; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell; and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
It got worse Friday.
The Senate GOP’s campaign arm formally ended its fundraising agreement with Moore.
Facing a tough re-election, Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., likened Moore to Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, former Rep. Anthony Weiner and former Fox News executive Roger Ailes, all men accused of sexual misconduct.
“The defense from some of his supporters is beyond disgusting,” Comstock wrote. “Moore should not serve in the U.S. Senate.”