An ultraconservative Republican candidate for the United States Senate has been accused of attempting to initiate a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl while he was 32.
Roy Moore, who is the Republican candidate to fill the vacancy in the Senate left by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has been accused of misconduct by a woman named Leigh Corfman, who claims Moore asked for her number outside a courtroom, and later attempted to initiate sexual conduct.
As per the Washington Post, who broke the story:
Alone with Corfman, Moore chatted with her and asked for her phone number, she says. Days later, she says, he picked her up around the corner from her house in Gadsden, drove her about 30 minutes to his home in the woods, told her how pretty she was and kissed her. On a second visit, she says, he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes. He touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear.
“I wanted it over with — I wanted out,” she remembers thinking. “Please just get this over with. Whatever this is, just get it over.” Corfman says she asked Moore to take her home, and he did.
The Post also details allegations from three other women who claim that Moore pursued them romantically when he was in his thirties and they were between the ages of 16 and 18. The age of consent in Alabama is 16.
Moore denied the allegations in a response to the Washington Post, suggesting that it was part of a conspiracy by his Democratic counterpart to undermine him.
“These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign,” he said.
His campaign chair Bill Armistead echoed these sentiments:
Judge Roy Moore has endured the most outlandish attacks on any candidate in the modern political arena, but this story in today’s Washington Post alleging sexual impropriety takes the cake. National liberal organisations know their chosen candidate Doug Jones is in a death spiral, and this is their last ditch Hail Mary.
Moore is one of the most conservative candidates to run for office in recent memory. A previous judge on the Alabama Supreme Court, Moore is renowned for his far-right, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQI views. He has ties to neo-Confederate and white nationalist groups in his home state, and was a leading voice in the so-called ‘birther’ movement, which claimed that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
Moore believes that the tenets of Christianity should hold precedence over the secular laws of the state, and was removed from his position on the Alabama Supreme Court for refusing to move a monument of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Judicial Building, despite orders from a federal court.
Donald Trump might be praising the Lord that he chose to endorse Moore’s opponent Luther Strange in the Republican primary race, but the president has sent several tweets endorsing Moore’s candidacy since then:
Spoke to Roy Moore of Alabama last night for the first time. Sounds like a really great guy who ran a fantastic race. He will help to #MAGA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2017
Some top Republicans are signalling that he should step aside. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement, “If these allegations are true, he must step aside.” It’s too late for Moore’s name to be removed from the ballot, per Alabama law.
