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Shelby: We can do better than Moore
In run-up to election, senior Republican issues rebuke of fellow Alabamian Moore
Despite urging from Alabama’s senior senator, most Republican leaders in the state say they’ll vote for Roy Moore despite sexual misconduct allegations.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — In his sternest rebuke yet, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby said repeatedly Sunday his state can “do better” than electing fellow Republican Roy Moore to the U.S. Senate, making clear that a write-in candidate was far preferable to a man accused of sexual misconduct against minors.
Days before the pivotal race, Shelby, who is Alabama’s senior senator, said he had already cast an absentee ballot for another, unspecified Republican, even as other prominent state Republicans fell in line behind Moore.
Moore faces Democrat Doug Jones in the special election Tuesday to replace Jeff Sessions, now the U.S. attorney general.
“I couldn’t vote for Roy Moore. I didn’t vote for Roy Moore. But I wrote in a distinguished Republican name. And I think a lot of people could do that,” Shelby told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“The state of Alabama deserves better,” he said.
“There’s a lot of smoke,” Shelby said of Moore and his accusers. “Got to be some fire somewhere.”
Moore has been a rare sight on the traditional campaign trail, appearing at only a handful of rallies in front of friendly audiences and steadfastly has shunned reporters from the mainstream media.
But on Sunday he did emerge to fight back against allegations that he sexually abused teenage girls when he was in his 30s, saying they were part of a plot to defame him.
“Ritual defamation has been around for a long time, and that’s what this is,” Moore, 70, told Bill Britt, anchor of “The Voice of Alabama Politics” television show.
Moore denied ever meeting either Leigh Corfman, who says he molested her when she was 14, or Beverly Young Nelson, who says he bruised her in a sexual assault when she was 16.
“I had no encounter with them,” he said. “I have never molested anyone.”
Moore also denied dating anyone underage, something he previously said he would not dispute.
Contradicting his earlier remarks on the topic, he said he’d never met any of the women who now say he pursued them when they were 16 or 17 years old. The legal age of consent for sex in Alabama is 16.
“It’s inconceivable to think that someone would wait 40 years, because they were embarrassed or ashamed or something, and then less than 30 days before the general election, come out and make allegations,” he said.
In a Fox News interview last month with Sean Hannity, Moore recalled knowing two of the women who said he pursued them when they were teenagers. He described one of them, Debbie Wesson Gibson, as a friend. She says that Moore asked her on a date when she was 17.
Moore also told Hannity that he didn’t recall “dating any girl without the permission of her mother.”
Moore plans to close out his campaign Monday night with a large rally featuring Steve Bannon, former adviser for President Donald Trump.
The accusations against Moore have left many GOP voters and leaders in a quandary. Voters face the decision of whether to vote for Moore or send Jones to Washington, which would narrow the GOP’s already precarious majority in the Senate.
They also could write in a name on their ballots or simply stay home. Meanwhile, most GOP politicians in the state must run for re-election next year — where they will face Moore’s enthusiastic voting base at the polls.
Shelby said allegations that Moore had molested a 14-year-girl in particular were a “tipping point” in disqualifying him. His latest comments cast fresh doubt on a former judge that Trump and most Republican leaders in Alabama are backing to help maintain the party’s narrow 52-48 majority in the Senate.
Shelby and Moore have moved in similar circles for decades, working together at times. Both are strictly anti-abortion, support conservative fiscal policies, tougher immigration rules and favor loosening rules on gun ownership along with increased military spending. Both men favor getting rid of the Senate rule that requires 60 votes for most legislation to pass.
When Moore sparked a legal crisis by displaying the Ten Commandments in a state courthouse, Shelby worked with Moore to introduce the Constitution Restoration Act, a bill that would have blocked the federal judiciary’s ability to prevent federal employees from acknowledging “God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government.”
But Shelby said in an interview last week he had concerns about Moore long before the allegations of sexual misconduct. One concern was Moore’s willingness as a judge to disobey judicial orders with which he disagreed, a tactic that led state officials to twice remove Moore from the bench.
“At one time, I was a U.S. magistrate ... and I believe in the rule of law,” said Shelby. “I disagree with a lot of court decisions, and even a lot of statutory things I don’t like, but still it’s the law.”
Another Shelby concern is the effect that Moore’s candidacy, and possible election, would have on the reputation of their state. Over 30 years, through earmarks and other legislative maneuvering, Shelby has directed hundreds of millions of dollars to Alabama to help re-create it as a forward-leaning, businessfriendly destination for the high-tech manufacturing, biotechnology and aerospace industries.
“I think the image of anything matters,” Shelby said. “It’s not 1860. It’s not 1900. It’s not 1940. It’s not 1964 or 1965. It’s 2017. And Alabama in a lot of ways is on the cutting edge, on the cusp of a lot of good things.”
On Sunday, Shelby acknowledged that if Moore is elected, he would probably have to be seated in the Senate but that an Ethics Committee investigation has already been contemplated to remove him.
“I think that the Senate has to look at who is fit to serve in the Senate,” he said.