Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore accused of molestation.

Roy Moore campaign sign. 

Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore has been accused of molestation of a 14 year old in a case dating back to 1979. Washington Post. The accuser has said that Moore asked her out when she was 14 and they had a consensual sexual encounter that did not involve actual intercourse. Moore was also accused by three other women of having dated them while they were between 16 and 18. The age of consent in Alabama was an is 16. Roy Moore, who defeated incumbent Senator Luther Strange in the primary election, strenuously denies the report and calls it "fake news". 

My Comment:

One of the accusations against Roy Moore is fairly disturbing. The other ones, involving girls that were over the age of consent, are a joke. If it's literally not a crime in Alabama to date a 16 year old, than there is nothing to discuss other than raising the age of consent. It probably should be 18 but if it isn't than there isn't any legal issue if someone dates one, especially if none of them accuse him of actually having sex. Hell, one of the girls was 18, and that's legal anywhere! Sure it's creepy and weird but not illegal and probably not uncommon back then.

The other case though? Yeah, big deal if true. Even though the encounter seemed totally consensual, it's still statutory rape. Indeed, that's why the law exists. It also doesn't matter if no actual sex occurred. All that matters is he touched a 14 year old in a sexual way. The statue of limitations has long ran out though, so there will never be a day in court. 

Still, there are a lot of reasons to doubt this case. The first and foremost is that it appeared in the Washington Post. The Post has endorsed Moore's senate candidate Doug Jones and is widely seen as having a very bad left wing bias. Had it appeared in a more reputable outlet, more people would believe it. As it stands right now, it looks very much like the Post is just trying to get Jones to win. 

The other problem is the timing. The special election is four weeks away. Supposedly the main accuser is a Republican. If true, why didn't she come forward sooner? Why wait until after Luther Strange was defeated? Had she come forward sooner, she could have prevented Moore from being the candidate and let Strange win easily. Now the Alabama Senate seat is in jeopardy. That's not the action of a Republican, it's the action of someone trying to hurt Republicans. 

Finally, Roy Moore has a ton of enemies that would benefit from him being knocked out of the race. Most obvious are the Democrats, who are salivating at the chance of taking a very safe seat from the GOP. Moore also has enemies on the other side of the political spectrum as well. It is no surprise to me that people like John McCain and Mitch McConnell have come out against him. Both of them supported Strange in the primaries and McCain has proven himself incredibly hostile against anyone even remotely connected to Donald Trump. At this point I feel that McCain is purposely trying to sabotage the Trump presidency, so any action he takes must be framed in that context. McCain would love to see Moore drop out and be replaced by a "Never-Trumper" and so would a few others in the anti-Trump wing of the GOP. 

But I don't think Moore can count on Trump either. Indeed, perhaps one of the reasons why Trump didn't support Moore in the primaries is due to this issue. Plus Trump has never seemed comfortable with Moore, despite their political beliefs being at least somewhat similar. Trump's busy in China right now so he hasn't said anything so far but I would not be surprised if he goes either way with it. Indeed, if Trump comes out against Moore, I think it might be over for him. 

So does this hurt Moore? I kinda doubt it. Why? Well for one, the issues I mentioned above. I doubt that many Moore voters are going to believe anything the Washington Post writes. Most people in the Trump wing of the GOP doesn't even think the Post is suited for toilet paper, let alone a news source. Indeed, the whole thing reeks of the accusations against Donald Trump, that didn't go anywhere. Years old accusations, not corroborated, with no charges filed, released by an outlet that hates the accused and released at the most damaging time possible?  It's exactly the same for both cases, and my guess is that Moore is still probably going to win. 

I also think that the fact that Moore is vehemently disputing these charges is helpful as well. Indeed, he seems likely to sue the Washington Post for defamation/libel for this article. If he had apologized or admitted guilt, then he would be done. We also have to consider the fact that Breitbart, one of the more influential conservative outlets, is defending Moore. I checked their website and the top headline was bashing GOP senators calling on Moore to back out and a preemptive attack on the Post article. 

It also helps that the accusations are relatively minor. As I said before, the incidents with the 16-18 year old girls were not even illegal and none of the cases involved actual sex. Critically, they were also completely consensual. Obviously, the case with the 14 year old is much more serious, but it was at least consensual. Though I do think that if true that accusation should probably disqualify Moore, others may disagree. 

And of course, I don't think that the Alabama voters are ignorant of the political implications of not supporting Moore. Many of them would gladly hold their noses and vote for a possible statutory rapist over a Democrat or an anti-Trump Republican. And given the relative reputations of the Democratic Party and their policies, they may think that they are now just choosing between two possible child molesters. Obviously no similar accusations against Doug Jones have emerged but similar accusations have surfaced against dozens of famous liberals right now. Fairly or unfairly, due to the actions of Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and all the others caught up in the Hollywood scandals, the Democrats are the party of rape and pedophilia. If your choices are between two potential pedophiles, you are going to go with the one that has better policies. That line of thinking is obviously flawed since, again, no accusations against Jones have emerged, but I think people will probably think that way. 

My prediction is that unless new accusations pop up or Moore gives up, he will still win the Alabama Senate election. We have been down this path before with the spurious accusations against Donald Trump. And even if the accusations are true, a big if, most people in Alabama would rather vote for a possible statutory rapist than a Democrat.