Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore (R) pushed back on reports that he pursued sexual relationships with teenagers in a Friday interview on Sean Hannity’s radio show, telling the host that he did “not generally” date women in their teens.
Moore first addressed the most serious allegation surfaced in a bombshell Washington Post report: that he groped Leigh Corfman in his home when he was 32 years old and she was only 14.
“I don’t know Ms. Corfman from anybody,” Moore told Hannity. “I’ve never talked to her, never had any contact with her. “Allegations of sexual misconduct with her are completely false. I believe they’re politically motivated. I believe they’re brought only to stop a very successful campaign, and that’s what they’re doing.”
Moore has stuck to this defense since the Post report first dropped Thursday afternoon, but he offered more specific denials in his Hannity interview, insisting that he never pursued inappropriate relationships with the four women who spoke to the newspaper. He acknowledged knowing and being friendly with the parents of two of the other accusers, Debbie Wesson Gibson and Gloria Thacker Deason.
Moore used the phrase “good girl” to describe both women, who said that he kissed them and took them on dates when they were in their late teens and he was in his early 30s. Moore denied any sort of misconduct and said he didn’t “remember dating any girl without the permission of her mother.”
Asked if he remembered dating girls that young in general, Moore said, “Not generally, no.”
The Alabama Republican said the reports were personally hurtful to him because he had a daughter and granddaughter and therefore had “special concern for the protection of young ladies.”
Congressional Republicans have responded fairly strongly to the Moore allegations, saying he must step aside if they are true—an argument Hannity himself made moments before Moore joined Friday’s show.
But it remains unclear what sort of additional information they are looking for to make that determination.
The four women in the Post story were independently sought out by the newspaper’s reporters, who had heard about Moore’s conduct with teenagers,. Friends and family members corroborated their stories.
