Moore Calls Out McConnell’s Response To Allegations Against Franken

Former Alabama Chief Justice and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore gets in his car after he speaks at a revival, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017, in Jackson, Ala. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore on Thursday criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for his response to the sexual misconduct allegations against Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and tried to equate the situation to his own.

McConnell has been vocal about wanting Moore to step aside from the Alabama Senate race since reports of the allegations against Moore surfaced last Thursday, which were first reported by The Washington Post and each account was corroborated with other witnesses.

At least seven women have come forward over the past week accusing Moore of pursuing relationships or unwanted sexual contact with them when they were teens and he was in his 30s. One of the women claimed Moore attempted to initiate a sexual encounter with her when she was 14. On Monday, a woman claimed Moore sexually assaulted her when she was 16.

Moore has denied all allegations of sexual assault and misconduct, but didn’t outright deny during at interview last week with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he may have dated teens when he was in his 30s.

Those accusations differ from allegations that Los Angeles radio host Leeann Tweeden made against Franken on Thursday. 

Tweeden claimed that Franken “aggressively” kissed her backstage at a United States Organizations tour in 2006 — before Franken was in office — and later groping her while she was sleeping. Franken apologized for the incident in a statement, but disputed part of her account of the incident.

Franken put out a second statement Thursday, asking for an ethics investigation to be undertaken and he would “gladly cooperate.”

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for pshah pshah says:

    Franken has asked for an investigation after one allegation. Moore has not after multiple credible allegations. And at least Franken wasn’t diddling CHILDREN, for Pete’s sake!

    And actually Mitch has been consistent. Investigations all around, as it should be.

    Good Lord, this guy is a monster.

  2. Avatar for tsp tsp says:

    One is admitting to the allegation. One is denying the allegation. See the difference?

  3. Yeah, one has some shame and the other doesn’t.

  4. Keep it up, Roy. Stay right there in the headlines. And by all means, let’s investigate all of the men accused!

  5. What investigation could McConnell actually undertake before he is elected much less seated? He is a private citizen holding no current office and really only “works for” the AL GOP at this point.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

75 more replies

Participants

Avatar for ajm Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for heirball Avatar for robb_ludwig Avatar for butlerknights Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for inversion Avatar for chelsea530 Avatar for 26degreesrising Avatar for lastroth Avatar for stradivarius50t3 Avatar for airportman Avatar for bd2999 Avatar for mrf Avatar for nwoldguy Avatar for tena Avatar for established_1781 Avatar for prometheus59650 Avatar for tsp Avatar for jacksonhts Avatar for tiowally Avatar for johnzdennis Avatar for carolson Avatar for mako999

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: