MOORE DENIES SEXUAL MISCONDUCT; GOP WORRIED
GOP fallout spreads; Moore denies sexual contact with 14-year-old girl
Montgomery, Ala. — His party suddenly and bitingly divided, Alabama Republican Roy Moore emphatically rejected increasing pressure to abandon his Senate bid on Friday as fears grew among GOP leaders that a once-safe Senate seat was in jeopardy just a month before a special election.
Moore, an outspoken Christian conservative and former state Supreme Court judge, attacked a Washington Post report that he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl and pursued three other teenagers decades earlier as “completely false and misleading.”
In an interview with conservative radio host Sean Hannity, he did not wholly rule out dating teenage girls when he was in his early 30s.
Asked if that would have been usual for him, Moore said, “Not generally, no.” He added: “I don’t remember ever dating any girl without the permission of her mother.”
Washington — Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore denied any sexual misconduct in a radio interview with Sean Hannity and said he never knew Leigh Corfman, the woman who accused him of initiating sexual contact when she was 14 and he was 32. “I don’t know Miss Corfman from anybody,” said Moore. “The allegations are completely false. I believe they’re politically motivated.”
When pressed by Hannity, Moore said that he knew several of the other women who spoke to The Washington Post, which published the allegations Thursday, but did not “remember going out on dates.” He admitted taking “young girls” out after returning to America following his service in Vietnam, but denied serving Gloria Thacker Deason, one of the accusers, rose wine, saying that any date would have happened in a dry county.
“She said she believed she was underaged,” said Moore. “As I recall she was 19 or older. I never provided intoxicating liquor to a minor. I seem to remember her as a good girl.”
Meanwhile, Republican leaders scrambled Friday to limit the political damage from allegations that Moore initiated sexual encounters with a 14-year-old girl and other teenagers nearly four decades ago, even as Moore pushed forward with his campaign.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee 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. But current and former national party leaders admitted that they have little power to actually force Moore from the race. The election is Dec. 12.
Strategists also backed away from discussions for a Republican write-in campaign in the state, saying there was little hope of success if Moore stays in the race — and raising the possibility that Moore’s scandal will remain a problem for the party into the 2018 midterm elections, as candidates are asked to take a position on the abuse of minors and intergenerational dating.