Another woman accuses of sexual assault; McConnell backs accusers.
McConnell says he believes accusers
Another Alabama woman came forward Monday to accuse Senate candidate Roy Moore of assaulting her when she was a minor.
Moore was a regular patron of a diner where Beverly Nelson, 16 years old in 1977, worked in Gadsden, Alabama. Moore, then an assistant district attorney, offered her a ride home one evening.
“He stopped his car,” Nelson told reporters. “He parked his car in between the dumpster and the back of the restaurant where there was no light. The area was dark, and it was deserted. I was alarmed, and I immediately asked him what he was doing.”
Moore began grabbing her breasts, Nelson said. Then he locked the car door when she tried to get out. Nelson said Moore squeezed her neck and “attempted to force my head into his crotch.”
“I thought he was going to rape me,” Nelson said. “I was twisting, and I was struggling, and I was begging him to stop. At some point he gave up.
“And he looked at me and told me, ‘You’re just a child, and I am the district attorney. If you tell anyone about this, no one will ever believe you,’ ” Nelson said.
Nelson said she would have taken the story to her grave without the other women coming forward.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that he believes the women who have alleged Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore pursued romantic relationships with them when they were teenagers.
“I believe the women, yes,” he said.
McConnell, speaking to reporters at a plant in Kentucky, also urged the Alabama Republican to step aside from the Senate race, which voters will decide next month.
McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said he’s looking at other Republican options for the seat, including incumbent Luther Strange, who lost a primary to Moore earlier this year. The December election is to replace former Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican who stepped down to become President Donald Trump’s attorney general.
“We’re looking at whether or not there is not someone who can mount a write-in campaign successfully,” McConnell said.
Moore has vehemently denied the allegations, reported by The Washington Post last week, that he had inappropriate relationships with teenagers when he was in his 30s.
But many Republicans have said he should get out of the race. Monday night, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker joined that group.
“I believe Roy Moore should step aside,” Walker said in a statement issued by his campaign.