"We need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama," President Donald Trump tweeted on Monday.
No doubt his endorsement will carry weight with some voters. We hope, as they decide how to cast their ballots next Tuesday, they also remember what Leigh Corfman had to say about how Moore, then 32, behaved with her when she was a 14-year-old girl in 1979. As the Washington Post reported last month:
"Alone with Corfman, Moore chatted with her and asked for her phone number, she says. Days later, she says, he picked her up around the corner from her house in Gadsden, drove her about 30 minutes to his home in the woods, told her how pretty she was and kissed her. On a second visit, she says, he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes. He touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear.
" 'I wanted it over with — I wanted out,' she remembers thinking. 'Please just get this over with. Whatever this is, just get it over.' Corfman says she asked Moore to take her home, and he did."
We hope voters also weigh the account of Beverly Young Nelson, who alleged Moore sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old and working as a waitress at the Old Hickory House restaurant in Gadsden, Ala. Moore signed her high school yearbook in December 1977. Then, as the Post reported:
"On a cold night about a week or two after that, Nelson alleges, Moore offered to give her a ride home from work after her shift ended at 10 p.m. Instead of taking her home, Nelson said, Moore pulled the two-door car into a dark and deserted area between a dumpster and the back of the restaurant.
"When she asked what he was doing, Nelson alleges, Moore put his hands on her breasts and began groping her. When she tried to open the car door and leave, Nelson said, he reached over and locked the door. When she yelled at him to stop and tried to fight him off, she alleges, he tightly squeezed the back of her neck and tried to force her head toward his lap. He also tried to pull her shirt off, she said.
" 'I was determined that I was not going to allow him to force me to have sex with him. I was terrified,' Nelson said. ... 'I thought that he was going to rape me.' "
Moore denies these stories, though he does not outright deny dating teenage girls as an older man. Many other women allege that he preyed on them as teenagers. None of them has reason now to lie.
This is the man Trump has decided he needs in the U.S. Senate. Alabama voters must decide if they agree. Is it so important to have a senator who will vote the president's way on tax cuts or judicial appointments that they are willing to be represented by a person who would do such abhorrent things to young girls?
FROM AN EDITORIAL IN THE WASHINGTON POST
