Alabama Republicans have had several notably disgusting responses to the reporting that four different women say GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore asked them out when he was in his 30s and they were in their teens, with one saying that, when she was 14 years old, Moore took her to his home, undressed down to his tighty whities, and tried to get her to fondle him. Well, here’s another one that deserved its own spotlight, because yuck:
Riley, can we talk? That “Other than being with an underage person” thing? That’s a big deal. She was 14 years old! And he did kinda force himself. Let’s return to what Leigh Corfman says happened when she was 14 years old—an account backed up by friends she told at the time:
She says that Moore drove her back to the same house after dark, and that before long she was lying on a blanket on the floor. She remembers Moore disappearing into another room and coming out with nothing on but “tight white” underwear.
She remembers that Moore kissed her, that he took off her pants and shirt, and that he touched her through her bra and underpants. She says that he guided her hand to his underwear and that she yanked her hand back.
“I wasn’t ready for that — I had never put my hand on a man’s penis, much less an erect one,” Corfman says.
Sure, yay, Moore did not forcibly rape this 14-year-old girl. He took her home at her request after merely molesting her. Speaking of which, let’s talk about how “14-year-olds don’t make good decisions.” Okay, maybe Corfman didn’t make the best decision in going out with Moore to begin with. But he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney who used a 14-year-old’s mother’s custody hearing to hit on her! He was a 32-year-old who brought a child to his house, took off his own clothes, took off her clothes, and pulled her hand to his erect penis! Even if we separate out the disgusting victim-blaming going on here, if we’re talking about who was making less good decisions, I’m going to go with the guy who made the pass, drove the car, and took off the clothes. While being an adult in a position of power, vs. a vulnerable child. And Leigh Corfman yanked her hand back and asked to be taken home—both things that sound like pretty darn good decisions.
It’s like Alabama Republicans want to confirm all the stereotypes about the South being filled with teen brides—all they need to do is to find a way to roll a defense of incest into this story for it to really hit all the stereotypes.