Breitbart Editor: GOP And Media Establishment Working Against Moore

A man holds an iPad showing the Breitbart website on November 10, 2017. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
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The editor of Breitbart News wants to see a “populist, nationalist, America-first conservative” get elected in Alabama’s Senate race, which is why their coverage of the sexual assault allegations against Republican candidate Roy Moore has been defensive of Moore and suspicious of the media and the victims.

“We admit our biases. … There are so many people who want Judge Moore to not become the senator from Alabama, and it’s not just Democrats, it’s the Republican establishment, it’s the media establishment,” Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow said in an interview with Politico. “And what happens in Alabama, either side is going to use it to claim momentum heading into 2018. It’s a hugely significant race.”

Before The Washington Post even published its sweeping investigative report on allegations that Moore pursued relationships with teenage girls when he was in his 30s, Breitbart scooped the outlet, publishing Moore’s denials of the allegations and casting doubt on The Post’s motivations for the piece.

Over the weekend, Breitbart published an interview with the mother of one of Moore’s accusers, criticizing the fact that the Post journalists sought out her daughter and asked her to come forward, which is standard journalistic practice.

Marlow said his publication and its reporters are “naturally very skeptical” of the Post and pointed out that the Post’s editorial board endorsed Moore’s Democratic opponent Doug Jones not long before the Moore story was published. Newspaper editorial boards generally operate independently from the rest of the newsroom.

“I don’t think The Washington Post, the Republican establishment, in this effort to try to take out Roy Moore, I don’t think this is about protecting young women, I don’t think it’s about sexual assault. I think this is about trying to destroy the career of Roy Moore to stop the momentum of the anti-establishment, America-first populist nationalist moment that’s taking place largely within the Republican Party,” he told Politico. “I think that’s the motivation here and I think that’s highly relevant to the discussion.”

The Washington Post began investigating the allegations about Moore after they’d heard several rumors about the incidents while working on a different story.

While he said it wasn’t his “personal preference,” Marlow said some of the allegations against Moore weren’t technically illegal, as the age of consent is 16 in Alabama. He said if it comes out that the sexual assault accusations are true and “Roy Moore really was a predator, particularly against children … he should not be a United States senator.”

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