Kasich urges Alabama’s Moore to drop out
Ohio Gov. John Kasich — without any qualification — Friday joined calls for Republican Roy Moore to drop out of the U.S. Senate race in Alabama amid allegations of a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl.
But at least one lawmaker in Ohio and several voices in Alabama are taking the former judge’s side.
In a tweet, Kasich called Moore “divisive” and “unfit” while saying Republicans must not support the GOP nominee for the Senate.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the disgraced former state Supreme Court justice had initiated a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl nearly four decades ago, when he was 32. Moore pursued three other girls when they were between the ages of 16 and 18, the Post also said.
Moore declined Friday to rule out that he may have dated girls in their late teens when he was in his 30s, but he said he did not remember any such encounters.
“If I did, I’m not going to dispute these things, but I don’t remember anything like that,” Moore said on the Sean Hannity radio program, when asked if he dated 17- or 18-year-old girls at the time.
Moore also denied outright the statement by Leigh Corfman that he had initiated sexual encounters with her when she was 14. “I don’t know Ms. Corfman from anybody,” he said. “The allegations of sexual misconduct with her are completely false.”
He did recall knowing two other accusers, Debbie Wesson Gibson and Gloria Thacker Deason, as well as their parents. “I knew her as a friend,” he said of Gibson, who has said that Moore asked her on a date when she was 17 after speaking at her high school. “If we did go out on dates, then we did, but I do not remember that,” Moore said.
When asked about Deason’s claim that he provided her wine on dates when she was 18, Moore said: “In this county, it’s a dry county. We never would have had liquor.”
Alcohol sales began in Etowah County in 1972, years before the alleged encounter, and the Post confirmed that wine was for sale at the time at the pizzeria where Deason remembered Moore taking her when she was under the legal drinking age of 19.
The legal age of consent for sexual activity in Alabama is 16. Moore told Hannity that “after my return from the military, I dated a lot of young ladies.”
Hannity said he would not want his 17- or 18-year-old daughter dating a 32-year-old. “I wouldn’t either,” said Moore.
Republican leaders scrambled Friday to limit the political damage from the allegations, and that included in Ohio.
The four Ohio Republicans seeking the gubernatorial nomination to succeed Kasich predicated their statements Friday with an “if” — if the claims are true, Moore should step aside.
Attorney General Mike DeWine said: “As President Trump and many other Republican leaders have stated, if these horrible allegations against Roy Moore are substantiated, he should immediately withdraw as a candidate.”
Secretary of State Jon Husted said: “If these allegations are true, he is not fit to hold any public office and should do the right thing and withdraw from the ballot.”
Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor said: “If the allegations against Roy Moore are true, he should immediately step aside. There is no place in society for such reprehensible actions and the citizens of Alabama deserve better.”
The campaign of U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci of Wadsworth said on his behalf: “Roy Moore has denied the allegations but if in fact they are true, he should step aside.”
Tim Alford, a spokesman for Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, said, “The allegations against Roy Moore are deeply disturbing.” But the Stivers camp acknowledged the congressman attended a Washington fundraiser for Moore this month and contributed $1,000.
Alford said Stivers’ political action committee “will be asking for the money to be returned and if the allegations are true, Congressman Stivers will call for Roy Moore to step down from the race.”
But state Rep. George Lang, R-West Chester, who was appointed to his southwest Ohio seat in mid-September, retweeted and “liked” one of Moore’s posts that read:
“I believe you and I have a duty to stand up and fight back against the forces of evil waging an all-out war on our conservative values! Our nation is at a crossroads right now — both spiritually and politically.”
Lang also “liked” another Moore tweet that said:
“The Obama-Clinton Machine’s liberal media lapdogs just launched the most vicious and nasty round of attacks against me I’ve EVER faced! We are are in the midst of a spiritual battle with those who want to silence our message.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, meanwhile, pulled out of a joint committee it had set up with Moore, depriving him of a fundraising vehicle for the final weeks of the campaign.
“Innocent until proven guilty is for criminal convictions, not elections,” said Mitt Romney, the party’s 2012 presidential nominee. “I believe Leigh Corfman. Her account is too serious to ignore. Moore is unfit for office and should step aside.”
The election in Alabama is Dec. 12. Democrat Doug Jones is running against Moore, who has been leading in the polls, and GOP strategists backed away from discussions for a Republican write-in campaign, saying there was little hope of success if Moore stays in the race.
Republican allies of Moore in Alabama attacked the accusers. “What these women are doing is such a shame,” Alabama state Rep. Ed Henry told a Huntsville radio station. “As a father of two daughters, they discredit when women actually are abused and taken advantage of. They’re not using their supposed experience to find justice. They’re just using it as a weapon, a political weapon.”
None of the women who alleged teenage relationships with Moore sought out the Post. While reporting a story in Alabama about supporters of Moore’s Senate campaign, a Post reporter heard that Moore allegedly had sought relationships with teenage girls and interviewed the four women.