Roy Moore asked if he dated teens while in his 30s: 'Not generally, no'

Alabama former judge, Republican Senate nominee, and sexual predator Roy Moore apparently decided that angry denial and fundraising appeals weren’t quite doing the trick. He needed another tactic to tamp down the reporting on him repeatedly hitting on and dating teenage girls when he was in his early 30s, including undressing to his tighty whities and pressing a 14-year-old girl to touch his penis. So he more or less simultaneously released a more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger statement and talked to Sean Hannity, that reliable outlet for Republicans in need of reputational repair.

In his statement, Moore insisted that “I have never provided alcohol to minors, and I have never engaged in sexual misconduct.” (Curious order there, no? Like providing alcohol to minors is the primary thing he needs to deny—or is it that it’s the thing he feels on firmer ground denying?) He goes on to say that “I also believe that any person who has been abused should feel the liberty to come forward and seek protection,” a statement dramatically at odds with his record as a judge. But mostly he’s just so confused and saddened that these vicious lies are being told about him. By four separate women who don’t know each other, and friends who one of them told about him around the time of their encounter.

In his Hannity appearance, asked if he remembered dating teenagers when he was in his 30s, Moore said “not generally, no” … but he didn’t definitively deny anything beyond having provided alcohol to girls under the drinking age and having molested or even known then-14-year-old Leigh Corfman (whose mother remembers him). Significantly, the age of consent in Alabama is, yes, 16—the age of the girls he’s not denying having known or possibly, maybe dated. One other firm line Moore drew: “I don’t remember dating any girl without the permission of her mother…her mother encouraged her to go out with me.” Yeah, buddy, if you’re dating girls young enough to need parental permission, we have a problem, unless you simply believe that no woman is ever old enough to date without parental permission—in which case it’s probably not her mother that you’re asking, and we have a whole different problem.

So that’s Moore’s current strategy: he’s been done wrong, but he’s only firmly denying the stuff that’s outright illegal and not merely creepy. Also, he must be pretty sure there’s more out there, because he warned that “I'm sure in the next couple of weeks they're going to come out with another article.” 

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/10/1714604/-Roy-Moore-asked-if-he-dated-teens-while-in-his-30s-Not-generally-no#comment_68319049