Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore was accused Thursday of initiating a sexual encounter with a girl who was 14 years old when he was 32.Moore's former colleague told CNN on Saturday that it was "common knowledge" that Moore dated high school girls.She added that "everyone thought it was weird" that Moore dated teenage girls and attended high school football games when he was in his 30s. Moore has denied the sexual misconduct allegations against him, though he acknowledged knowing some of his accusers.
https://www.businessinsider.com/roy-moore-former-colleague-common-knowledge-hedated-high-school-girls-2017-11
Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore dropped by Sean Hannity’s radio program Friday afternoon to respond to allegations that he’d pursued sexual encounters with four teenagers when he was in his 30s — including one woman who said she was 14 when Moore approached her.
And while he called the story “completely false and misleading,” he said he “didn’t dispute” that he used to date girls as young as 16.
Moore on whether he dated teenagers while in his 30s: “Not generally, no”Hannity pressed Moore on whether he had dated girls in their teens when he was in 30s. “Not generally, no,” the former judge said in response.
It was one of many bizarre defenses offered by Moore, who denied the most explosive of the allegations in the Washington Post report — that as a 32-year-old in 1979 he had kissed and touched 14-year-old Leigh Corfman on multiple separate occasions.
Hannity also asked Moore about Debbie Wesson Gibson, who, according to the Post, was 17 when Moore pursued her for two months and said "he kissed her once in his bedroom and once by the pool at a local country club." She said "nothing bad happened" but that she realizes now the age difference made it inappropriate.
In response, Moore said, "I know her, but I don't remember going on dates with her. I knew her as a friend. If we did go on dates, then we did." He said he did not remember speaking to her civics class, which Gibson said is how they met.
Another woman, Gloria Thacker, told the Post she was 18 at the time when Moore initiated a relationship and gave her wine at an age when it would have been illegal for her to drink. Moore said he did not remember whether he had gone on dates with them, but said he would not have dated people so young.
Moore said, "I have never provided alcohol to minors." To try to support his argument, he said the county they lived in was dry.
Hannity asked Moore if he could "say unequivocally that you never dated anybody in their late teens when you were 32?"
Moore responded, "It would've been out of my customary behavior." He also said he would've never dated a woman without her mother's permission but added that Thacker and Gibson's mothers had encouraged the girls to be friends with him. |
