An Alabama woman says Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for next month’s U.S. Senate election, made inappropriate advances and had sexual contact with her when she was 14, according to a Washington Post story Thursday. The Senate’s GOP leader said if the report is shown to be true, Moore must step aside.
The newspaper reports that Moore, then 32, first approached 14-year-old Leigh Corfman in early 1979 outside a courtroom in Etowah county, Alabama. After phone calls and meetings, he drove her to his home some days later and kissed her, the Post quotes Corfman as saying. On a second visit, he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes except for his underwear before touching her over her bra and underpants, Corfman told the Post. He also guided her hand to touch him over his underwear, she said.
“I wanted it over with — I wanted out,” she told the Post. “Please just get this over with. Whatever this is, just get it over.”
Moore won the right to represent the GOP in the Dec. 12 special election after surviving a bruising primary election that divided the GOP, including President Donald Trump and his former chief strategist Steve Bannon. Trump backed Sen. Luther Strange in the contest, while Bannon and much of the far-right portion of the party backed Moore.
The Moore campaign called the report “the very definition of fake news and intentional defamation.”
Aside from Corfman, three other women interviewed by the Post in recent weeks said Moore pursued them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s. None of the other women said that Moore forced them into any sort of relationship or sexual contact.
In a one-sentence statement Thursday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said: “If these allegations are true, he must step aside.”
Swift reaction
Soon after the Post report was published, several Republicans joined calls from GOP leaders for Moore to leave the race.
“The allegations against Roy Moore are deeply disturbing and disqualifying,” said Arizona Sen. John McCain. “He should immediately step aside and allow the people of Alabama to elect a candidate they can be proud of.”
Texas Sen. John Cornyn said: “If it is true I don’t think his candidacy is sustainable.”
It’s too late for Moore’s name to be removed from the ballot even if he wants to withdraw from the race, according to John Bennett, a spokesman for the Alabama secretary of state.
“There is no process for Judge Moore to be removed from the ballot,” Bennett said. “The party and the candidate himself can remove their nomination, or revoke their nomination, however, the name will appear on the ballot regardless.”
In such a scenario, even if Moore earned more votes than the Democrat, the state canvassing board would not declare him the winner, Bennett said.
Alabama law lists the legal age of consent as 16.
Moore a controversial character
In Alabama, the statute of limitations for bringing felony charges involving sexual abuse of a minor in 1979 would have run out three years later. Corfman never filed a police report or a civil suit, the Post said.
Moore has long courted controversy. He has been a staunch opponent of gay marriage, said he believes former president Barack Obama is not U.S.-born, and once wrote an op-ed stating that Democrat Keith Ellison shouldn’t take the congressional oath because he is a practising Muslim.
The Democratic opponent is Doug Jones, who has so far unsuccessfully tried to get Moore to agree to a debate.
