Moore: Nixing Amendments After Bill Of Rights Would ‘Eliminate Many Problems’

Former Alabama Chief Justice and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore speaks at a campaign rally, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017, in Fairhope Ala. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Former Alabama Chief Justice and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore speaks at a campaign rally, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017, in Fairhope Ala. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
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While Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore has made his name as a self-proclaimed supporter of upholding the rights awarded by the Constitution, he’s not a big fan of all those rights.

In 2011, Moore appeared on a conspiracy-theorists’ radio show, and said if the U.S. got rid of all the amendments after the Bill of Rights, it would “eliminate many problems,” according to audio of the radio show, the “Aroostook Watchmen” show, obtained by CNN’s KFile.

“That would eliminate many problems,” Moore said. “You know people don’t understand how some of these amendments have completely tried to wreck the form of government that our forefathers intended.”

In the interview, Moore specifically cited the 17th Amendment, which allows voters to directly elect senators instead of state legislatures, and the 14th Amendment, which granted citizenship to former slaves.

“The danger in the 14th Amendment, which was to restrict, it has been a restriction on the states using the first Ten Amendments by and through the 14th Amendment,” Moore said. “To restrict the states from doing something that the federal government was restricted from doing and allowing the federal government to do something which the first Ten Amendments prevented them from doing. If you understand the incorporation doctrine used by the courts and what it meant. You’d understand what I’m talking about.”

Other amendments post-Bill of Rights include the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, the 15th, which prohibited the government from blocking people’s right to vote based on race, the 19th, which gave women the right to vote and the 22nd, which limits the number of times a person can be elected to the presidency to two terms.

Moore’s campaign told CNN that he doesn’t actually believe in eliminating amendments 11 through 27, but was rather speaking about “the overall framework for the separation of powers” in the U.S. government.

In that same interview, Moore questioned the validity of former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

Both comments fall in line with controversial remarks Moore has made recently and in the early days of his career in the public eye, from claiming homosexuality should be illegal to saying in September that America was great back when “families were united — even though we had slavery.”

Listen to the interview below:

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