'If These Allegations Are True, He Must Step Aside' (Roy Moore)

[EasyAce]

A report that Republican nominee Roy Moore had sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl in the 1970s has upended the Senate race in Alabama.
By David A. Graham and Elaine Godfrey
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/roy-moore/545471/

Roy Moore, the controversial GOP nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, had sexual
contact with a 14-year-old in the 1970s, and pursued two other teenaged girls, according to a
bombshell Washington Post report published early Thursday afternoon.

Leigh Corfman told the Post that she met Moore, then a 32-year-old district attorney, outside a
courtroom in Etowah County, Alabama. Moore obtained her phone number, then made arrangements
to pick her up near her house a few days later. She said that on a first date, he kissed her. On a
second encounter, she said, he took off her pants and shirt and his own clothes, touched her over
her bra and underwear, and guided her hand to touch his penis over his underwear . . .

. . . The age of sexual consent in Alabama, then and now, is 16, so Moore’s alleged action would
constitute second-degree sexual abuse, a misdemeanor. Enticing someone younger than 16 into
a home for genital touching is a felony. The Post corroborated elements of Corfman’s account using
court records and interviews with her mother and a friend to whom she recounted the events at
the time . . .

. . . The Atlantic reached out to all 52 Republican senators to ask whether they think Moore should
withdraw from the Alabama Senate race, based on the allegations. Eighteen senators responded, all
suggesting that if the Washington Post allegations are true, Moore should withdraw from the race.

. . . In a statement, Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse said, “The Post’s story is appalling and heartbreaking.
If there’s an ounce of truth to any of this, Roy Moore has no place in public life and ought to drop out
immediately. Alabamians should start thinking about who they’ll write in but it’s obvious that conservatives
deserve better than this.” Florida Senator Marco Rubio called the report “deeply disturbing and, if true,
disqualifying" . . .

[EasyAce]

For the record: Elsewhere, I reject Moore on the grounds of his apparent inclination toward violating Article VI,
Section 3 of the Constitution:

[Moore] is the author of the misnamed 2005 Constitution Restoration Act that would give Congress
the power to remove any judge who refuses to recognize God as the source of America's law. The bill also
seeks to limit the power of the Supreme Court to overrule or punish any state official or judge acting in the
name of God's law and, instead, would impeach the judges who take on such cases.
----Shikha Dalmia, Reason, 4 October 2017.

But I also agree with Sens. Sasse, Rubio, and the others who say that if the allegations in the Post's
story are indeed true he must withdraw.