GOP’s Toomey calls on Roy Moore to drop out
Senate hopeful questions timing of sex allegations
WASHINGTON – Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore faced a fresh onslaught of Republican repudiation on Sunday, with one top GOP senator calling on the controversial exjudge to drop his campaign in the aftermath of allegations that Moore pursued relationships with teenage girls when he was in his early 30s.
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the
Press, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said Moore should “step aside,” and he endorsed the idea of a write-in bid by current Alabama GOP Sen. Luther Strange. Toomey’s remarks represented yet another slap against Moore after the Washington Post reported last week that Moore pursued relationships with four teenage girls when he was in his early 30s.
One woman, Leigh Corfman, said she was 14 when Moore, then 32, took her to his home in 1979, undressed her and, according to the report, “touched her over her bra and underpants ... and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear.” The age of consent in Alabama, both then and now, is 16. Another woman, Gloria Deason, said she was 18 when Moore took her on a date and bought her wine.
Moore and his campaign have called the story false. Moore said on Saturday that he was “not been guilty of sexual misconduct with anyone” and had never purchased alcohol for underage women. Both Moore and his GOP allies in Alabama have questioned the timing of the story.
“Isn’t it strange after 40 years of constant investigation, that people have waited four weeks before a general election to bring their complaint?” Moore said. “That’s not a coincidence.”
But Moore’s denials have not calmed GOP jitters in Washington.
“We’ll probably never know for sure exactly what happened,” Toomey said. “But … I think the accusations have more credibility than the denial. I think it would be best if Roy would just step aside.”
Top White House officials stopped short of calling on Moore to drop out of the race, but they decried the allegations against him.
“I said very early that the conduct as described should disqualify anyone from serving in public office, and I’ll stand by that,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on ABC’s This Week.
Marc Short, the White House’s legislative affairs director, said on Meet
the Press, there’s “a special place in hell for people who have done those crimes.”
Both Toomey and Short said the timing of the Washington Post story — coming just weeks before the election — raised questions about the allegations.
“Isn’t it strange after 40 years ... that people have waited four weeks before a general election to bring their complaint?” Roy Moore