Trump aide says Moore deserves time to defend self
Marc Short says Ala. judge to bring more evidence forward.
WASHINGTON — A senior aide to President Donald Trump said Sunday that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore needs to be given time to defend himself against allegations that he pursued sexual or romantic relationships with teenage girls when he was in his 30s and that Trump would look more closely at the issue after returning from a trip to Asia.
“There’s no Senate seat more important than the notion of child pedophilia,” Marc Short, the White House director of legislative affairs, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I mean that’s reality. But having said that, he has not been proven guilty. We have to afford him the chance to defend himself.”
Short noted that Moore this week “plans to come forward with more evidence to support his innocence.”
Short was among several senior Trump administration officials who hedged their comments about the Republican Senate hopeful during appearances on Sunday talk shows. A Washington Post report last week detailed the stories of four women who said Moore had pursued relationships with them while they were teenagers and he was in his early 30s, including one, Leigh Corfman, who said Moore undressed himself and touched her over her underwear when she was 14 and he was 32.
Moore has vigorously denied the allegations, calling them “fake news.”
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday morning, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway emphasized that if Moore did what he is accused of doing, he should step aside from his campaign for the U.S. Senate sea.
But Conway repeatedly declined to say whether she believed the accusations against Moore.
“I know what I read,” Conway said. “I don’t know the accusers, and I don’t know Judge Moore. But I also want to make sure that we as a nation are not always prosecuting people through the press. He has denied the allegations.”
Short said Trump would focus more on the Alabama Senate race when he returns to Washington later this week.