Moore campaign rips media, political establishment

Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore’s campaign defended its candidate in the face of numerous sexual misconduct allegations and calls for him to step down, taking aim at the news media, Democrats and the GOP establishment in a press conference on Tuesday.

“Mitch McConnell has spent over $30 million dollars trying to stop Judge Roy Moore. The Washington Post and all of the fake media for the last two weeks has said everything they can say about Judge Moore. They’re trying to dig people up, put them on TV and say ‘Judge Moore’s a bad guy,’ ” the Moore campaign’s chief political strategist, Dean Young, said. 

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Young proceeded to take aim at Moore’s Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, referring to him as a “dyed in the wool liberal Democrat.”

“Alabamians, we cannot send anyone like that to Washington,” he continued.

The campaign also targeted the woman who publicly accused Moore in a Washington Post story of touching her sexually when she was 14 years old. 

“Lets look at Leigh Corfman,” an attorney for Moore said.

“She’s made some very serious allegations against Judge Moore to The Washington Post, and yesterday, in a very softball interview on the ‘Today Show.’ We reject them as false, and we continue to maintain that Judge Moore did not know Leigh Corfman, nor has he ever known Leigh Corfman.” 

The campaign also appealed to the White House and President Trump’s supporters during the press conference, invoking White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s comments on Monday that Republicans need the Republican Senate vote to pass tax reform.

“By the way, that’s why you saw Kellyanne come out yesterday and say we’ve got to have somebody like Judge Moore,” Young said.

“You know, Kellyanne does talk to the White House,” he continued. 

The campaign’s comments came as Trump addressed the issue himself on Tuesday, similarly saying they needed a Republican in the seat.

“We don’t need a liberal Democrat in the seat,” Trump told reporters. 

Trump went on to address the allegations against Moore, saying, “He denies it. He totally denies it.”

The comments from Moore’s campaign are its latest attempt to defend Moore and deny the allegations.

Moore himself has not signaled he will drop his Senate bid, calling the accusations against him politically motivated. 

The special election for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s former seat is set for Dec. 12.