President Trump says
he will not campaign for Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore even as he lashes Moore’s Democrat opponent.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will not campaign for Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore before the Dec. 12 special election, a White House official said Monday.
The president had held the door open to campaigning for Moore last week, when he all but endorsed his candidacy while attacking his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones. Trump also made public statements in which he raised doubts about the accounts of women who have accused Moore of sexual misconduct decades ago, when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.
The White House official told The Associated Press that Trump would not travel to Alabama on Moore’s behalf. The official was not authorized to discuss the president’s plans publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Over the weekend, Trump took to Twitter to bash Jones, saying that electing him as Alabama’s next senator “would be a disaster” and warning of damage to his legislative agenda.
Trump has declined to follow the path of other mainstream GOP leaders, who have called on Moore to step aside. Republican lawmakers are considering expelling Moore should he win the seat.
For weeks, accusations that Moore, now 70, sexually molested or assaulted two teens, ages 14 and 16 — and tried to date several others — while he was in his 30s have taken center stage in the heated race. Moore denied the allegations of misconduct.
Moore’s campaign quickly touted Trump’s comments on social media and in a fundraising email to supporters that lashed out at GOP leaders as much as it did Jones.
Jones, speaking to reporters in Birmingham, shrugged off Trump’s criticisms, saying he would not be a partisan voter. He said Alabamians are focused on issues such as the economy, education and health care.
“My record speaks for itself,” said Jones, a formal federal prosecutor. “I think I am very strong on the issues that the people of Alabama care for.”
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that a woman who falsely claimed to the newspaper that Moore impregnated her as a teenager appears to work with an organization that uses deceptive tactics to secretly record conversations in an effort to embarrass its targets.
In a series of interviews over two weeks, Jaime Phillips shared a dramatic story about an alleged sexual relationship with Moore in 1992 that led to an abortion when she was 15. During the interviews, she repeatedly pressed Post reporters to give their opinions on the effects that her claims could have on Moore’s candidacy if she went public.
The Post did not publish an article based on her unsubstantiated account. When Post reporters confronted her with inconsistencies in her story and an internet posting that raised doubts about her motivations, she insisted that she was not working with any organization that targets journalists.
But on Monday morning, Post reporters saw her walking into the New York offices of Project Veritas, an organization that targets the mainstream news media and left-leaning groups. The organization sets up undercover “stings” that involve using false cover stories and covert video recordings meant to expose what the group says is media bias.
James O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas who was convicted of a misdemeanor in 2010 for using a fake identity to enter a federal building during a previous sting, declined to answer questions about the woman outside the Project Veritas office, a storefront in Mamaroneck, N.Y., on Monday morning shortly after the woman walked inside.
“I am not doing an interview right now, so I’m not going to say a word,” O’Keefe said.
In a follow-up interview, O’Keefe declined to answer repeated questions about whether the woman was employed at Project Veritas.