[UPDATE: And yet another woman has come forward.
Gene Richardson, 58, alleges Mr Moore called her at her high school to ask her out. She rebuffed his offer, but said she felt pressured to go out with him after he allegedly asked again at the Gadsden Mall, where she worked. She claims the date ended with a “forceful” kiss.
Becky Gray, who was 22 at the time, also worked at the mall and said she complained to her manager about Mr Moore’s behaviour. She alleges the manager told her it was “not the first time he had a complaint about him hanging at the mall”.
]
As is often the case with sexual abuse, once the floodgates open, more and more people come forward with stories about the perpetrators that they had long suppressed thinking that they were alone or that no one would believe them. That is what is happening with Roy Moore as two more women come forward with stories that Moore is a creepy guy.
Tina Johnson recalled how in 1991 when she was 28, she went with her mother to Roy Moore’s law office to get some custodial papers for her son signed. She said that Moore flirted with her the whole time making her uncomfortable and then as she was leaving the office, he came up behind her and grabbed her buttocks. She told her sister about it years later and her sister recalls the conversation.
In 1982, 17-year old Kelly Harrison Thorp was working as a hostess in a Red Lobstr restaurant when she encountered Moore who as a county assistant district attorney in his thirties.
Thorp said Moore asked her if she’d go out with him sometime.
“I just kind of said, ‘Do you know how old I am?'” she recalled.
“And he said, ‘Yeah. I go out with girls your age all the time.’
”
Thorp said she turned him down and told him she had a boyfriend. She said he then walked away.Thorp said she later told a family member but did not tell the story publicly. She moved away from Gadsden the following year, and has just recently moved back.
Thorp knows one of Moore’s accusers, Leigh Corfman, who told The Washington Post that Moore had a sexual encounter with her when she was 14. Thorp believes Corfman’s story and said she is proud of her for telling it publicly.
Although Thorp’s story does not involve sexual assault, it adds to the evidence that Moore was constantly on the prowl for teenagers.
Moore seems to be still holding up in the polls. One of his most ardent defenders, Sean Hannity of Fox News, had an interview with Moore that was supposed to allow Moore to rebut all the charges but his answers were so equivocal that even Hannity yesterday said that he would give Moore 24 hours to clear up all the inconsistencies or he should get out of the race. As you might expect, Moore’s supporters have gone ballistic at what they perceive as Hannity going over to the dark side. (See the comments to that post.)
Donald Trump has maintained an uncharacteristic silence on Moore. After he made a misstep in endorsing Moore’s rival Luther Strange in the primary, he must be feeling wary of antagonizing Moore’s supporters again, since they are also his supporters.
I suspect that Moore may have blown his chance at being elected when he went on Sean Hannity’s show. I mean, I presume that many right-wing presumably hold Hannity as being a “reliable” source of information, and therefore not to be shunned like the mainstream media, and therefore they tuned in expecting Moore to “exonerate” himself.
I didn’t listen directly, but all of the comedy commentators played back the relevant clips. And Moore sounded as guilty as hell.
He could have been confident and dismissive, and/or more carefully evasive, and/or bluntly denialistic, but he just wasn’t.
I don’t think Trump thinks he has anything to gain by speaking up, especially since the accusations against Moore are very similar to the ones made against Trump himself.
I wonder how the lawsuits from women assaulted by Trump against Trump are going?
Huh. According to this page, the only lawsuit regarding the harassment/assault claims brought in recent times was from Summer Zervos. I thought there were more.
Gah, needs fixed: “I wonder how the lawsuits from women assaulted by Trump against Trump are going?”
Actually, that’s still not clear. You know what, just strike the sentence, and after “Zervos” append: “I thought there were more.”
[Corrected as requested -- MS]
I saw something elsewhere about Moore doing some fancy dodge-work about a yearbook that he apparently wrote some stuff in -- one of his accusers’ yearbook. You know
His lawyer is claiming he never wrote that. Because, presumably, he’s too dumb to think anyone is going to find writing samples of Moore from 1977 to compare with (and then the story will be “the accuser must have forged it using an old writing sample..”) [<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/15/politics/roy-moore-alabama-senate/index.html"]
The lawyer is a real piece of work. Which suits his client, really.
Moore is too cowardly to give a flat denial, or perhaps he has convinced himself that he is clever enough to parse his wordplay fine enough for his evasiveness to go undetected. But since he lacks exactly that sort of intelligence, he makes himself look like a spineless, squirming liar trapped by shrewd interrogation.
And what an interrogation! Poor Hannity must have been screaming internally, how are you not able to say ‘no’ to these softballs! Easy question after easy question, even a guilty man could have said ‘nope never did that’ but instead he came up with “I know her but I don’t remember going out on dates. I knew her as a friend. If we did go out on dates then we did. But I don not remember that.”
Fucking wow, what a slow mind.
Sigh. And I see now that I typed “Zeros” instead of “Zervos” at the end of #1.
[Corrected -- MS]
Hmm. People lie differently depending on how many accusers they think they have to deal with. The style of evasions he’s using suggest the potential for a great deal more yet to come.
I don’t think it’s either bravery or intelligence that’s involved here. I don’t think Trump is either brave or intelligent, and he has done it before and will no doubt continue to do it until he dies.
It’s more like an innate or learned skill of all successful frauds; political, religious, or financial: The ability to say the most self-serving thing you can think of at the moment, regardless of its honesty.
Frex:
Hannity: But what about the yearbook?
Moore: (*calm and avuncular*) Well, Sean, if a nice young girl came up to me and asked me to sign her book, I wouldn’t have refused. It wouldn’t have been gentlemanly. (*chuckle*) It also wouldn’t be gentlemanly to accuse the poor thing of lying about her experience. While I know and you know that there are people with deep pockets who might be able to make it worth her while to accuse me of doing horrible things, I’m sure she’s probably just misremembering what happened. The women in my life would be glad to testify that I am always deeply respectful towards them, and always have been.
(Trump wasn’t like that — he just went on the attack. They’re lying! They’ve been bought off! I have no idea who these women are! But that’s how a fraud with more charm than Trump might pull it off.)
(I don’t think I have the skill myself. I’m just imaging the sort of thing someone with that skill might say. I’m not under any sort of pressure.)
Owlmirror, I agree — you don’t have the skill yourself. 🙂
(Which is a compliment)
Steve Bannon has chosen to die on this hill; so has Hannity. This is what they’ll be remembered for.
polishsalami@#9:
We can only hope.
I happen to be on jury duty right now, and was thinking back to a case I served on 18 years ago. A white, male, Romanian MD, working as a post-doc in NYC was accused of shoplifting. A conviction would end his hopes of becoming a US citizen and practicing medicine. The case against him was extremely strong, and the defense absurdly weak. Two jurors were thoroughly convinced he was innocent and went to extraordinary lengths to explain away the evidence. It became clear that they had decided (not presumed…) before the trail that he was innocent and no amount of evidence would sway them. These are the people who support Trump, Moore, etc.
Very disappointingly, Al Franken has been convincingly accused of a sexual assault (Forcibly kissing a woman, then later putting his hands on her breasts whilke she was asleep) in 2006. He has apologised to the woman concerned, but that’s clearly not enough. He should resign.