Republicans continue to downplay, make excuses for, and distract from the bombshell Washington Post report that Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore spent his 30s hitting on, dating, and molesting teenage girls. The White House joined the parade of Republicans saying that “if true,” Moore must withdraw from the race, with press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying in a statement that:
“Like most Americans the president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person’s life. However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside. Regardless, the president must and will remain focused on representing our country on his historic trip to Asia, where he has been treated with great respect and made unprecedented progress in further strengthening alliances and promoting America’s interest above all else.”
Since most Americans weren’t caught on tape saying that their way of relating to women was to “grab them by the pussy,” I’d wager that Donald Trump’s feelings about Moore’s scandal are not “like most Americans’” at all. But speaking of the Access Hollywood tape, Steve Bannon decided it was a good idea to cite in defending Moore:
"The Bezos-Amazon-Washington Post that dropped that dime on Donald Trump, is the same Bezos-Amazon-Washington Post that dropped the dime this afternoon on Judge Roy Moore. Now is that a coincidence?” Bannon said in remarks that were reported by CBS News. “That's what I mean when I say opposition party, right? It's purely part of the apparatus of the Democratic Party. They don't make any bones about it. By the way, I don't mind it. I'll call them out every day."
Is that Steve Bannon implicitly admitting that the quality of evidence against Roy Moore is equivalent to the quality of evidence against Donald Trump? Either way, he definitely sees excellence in investigative reporting as something so anti-Republican it’s actively partisan for Democrats. No wonder, with these kinds of skeletons in Republican closets.
Still, even Bannon can’t match for vileness the sleazy justifications offered by Alabama Republicans, like that “Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter” and “There’s nothing wrong with a 30-year-old single male asking a 19-year-old, a 17-year-old, or a 16-year-old out on a date.”