5 Roy Moore Defenses That Don’t Fly

The team at Iron Ladies is not buying the defenses Moore’s defenders are selling.

Given the new allegations of assault from Beverly Nelson, the evidence against Judge Roy Moore gets more damning. Here are five of the most popular defenses of Judge Moore up to this point and our assessments of each of them:

1. “The timing is suspicious.”

This is the most common objection to taking the allegations seriously. Moore’s defenders, including his campaign, insist that the stories are politically motivated and “fake news” meant to derail his Senate bid.

Yet the Washington Post article detailed that, “While reporting a story in Alabama about supporters of Moore’s Senate campaign, a Post reporter heard that Moore allegedly had sought relationships with teenage girls. Over the ensuing three weeks, two Post reporters contacted and interviewed the four women. All were initially reluctant to speak publicly but chose to do so after multiple interviews, saying they thought it was important for people to know about their interactions with Moore. The women say they don’t know one another.”

This was not a salacious rumor the Post sat on until the most opportune moment, or accusations they baited. Nor did the Post reporters head to Alabama looking for a sensational story to derail a political career. They simply stumbled upon the story and then investigated the lead. It’s vintage, almost quaint reporting.

Yes, only the foolish would fail to acknowledge that news outlets have political agendas and financial motivations to sit on stories until the peak moment to create maximum drama and ratings and possibly sway an election. Dan Rather ran with the Killian Documents two months before the 2004 election. They were fake, and the scandal cost him his career. NBC sat on the tapes of Trump’s “pussy-grabbing” comments until very late in the election, hoping to have the tape dominate the run up to the second presidential debate. “Access Hollywood” staffers then leaked it to the Washington Post when NBC delayed because Hurricane Matthew coverage might interfere with the plan. Suspicious timing happens. It just usually leaves more tells.

2. “It was 35 years ago.”

Times were different then. So they were. This excuse has been employed by the Alabama State Auditor and many, many others. Frequently cited along with it is the fact that Moore has ostensibly had a healthy, happy marriage for over three decades. Voters in Alabama can take that information into account when they decide whether these alleged instances of predatory behavior are old enough to be dismissed as no longer informing the character of Judge Moore.

But these stories are beyond older guy dates young girl. There are elements of pressure, violence, and manipulation of the vulnerable. It is never too late to take those seriously. Certainly the alleged assault of Beverly Young Hill, who was 16 at the time, when Moore was District Attorney, should not be brushed aside. And the absence of any regret or remorse but only vague denials, makes us uneasy about this excuse.

[Additionally, a comment from this morning. (This piece came from a group discussion that Georgi compiled. I should probably make a team account for the magazine.)] We do have examples of how public opinion dealt with such relationships, yet there has been no mention that we’ve seen of Jerry Lee Lewis. In the 1950’s, Lewis was a rising rock star, rivaling Elvis. Then, at the age of 23, he married a 13 year old girl. The story is not exactly the same. It was Lewis’s third marriage and the girl was his cousin’s daughter. But her age and the 10 year gap bothered the public in the 1950’s. Lewis was shunned. His career never recovered. It says something about us that we are trying to justify today what was reprehensible yesterday.

3. “The age of consent in Alabama is 16"

Yes, the age of consent in Alabama was, and still is, 16. The State Auditor insisted, “There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here.” Really? To start, one of the girls was 14.

Assuming for the sake of argument, however, that all of the accusers were 16 at the time of the incidents, are we still comfortable with it just because it is technically within the letter of the law? Clearly a court would have to be, but Moore is not on trial, he is in a bid for the US Senate. Whether one aligns with the spirit of the law, the reason the public enacts it, is an appropriate line of thought for a leadership inquiry.

It is highly disturbing, if not predatory, for a man in his 30s (an assistant District Attorney, mind you) to be pursuing teenage girls. Most girls this age are extremely immature, crave attention and flattery, and are highly susceptible to influence by powerful men. A few are unusually mature, but they are the rare exception and not to be used to normalize an age difference this wide. Consider, why there are so many scandals involving interns and powerful men. Not because every intern is trying to sleep her way to the top but because they young are more easily taken in and manipulated in steeply hegemonic relationships. Frankly this is why many states set the age of consent at 18 and some have age spreads. A relationship between a 16 year old and a 20 year old does not worry us so much as one between a 16 year old and a 35 year old.

4. Moore got permission from the girls’ parents

This is one of the more egregious excuses. The fact that parents agreed to let their tender daughters date a powerful man twice their age does not acquit Moore, it indicts the parents. Though it must be noted that norms in the 70’s were different than today, and it might have been less unusual for an older man and a younger woman to end up married, the cultural norms are not different enough to remove any fault on either Moore’s part or the girls’ parents.

Moreover, Moore’s reported behavior is not that of a man who couldn’t help but fall in love with a young woman despite his better judgment. According to the Washington Post, he often took walks outside the Gadsden mall, worked out at the YMCA, and gave talks to high school classes. He also asked teenage girls out on dates the first time he saw them, according to their reports. A sensible person would take all this into account and surmise that the ADA was looking for girls in a certain age range in places where they could be found. A colleague who worked for the DA said his habit of dating teens was well-known. A man in his 30’s who goes looking for teenage girls to “date” is up to no good.

5. “These women just want attention”

Bethany Mandel explained why this explanation is “hollow” on Reliable Sources.

“This will be the only thing these women are ever know for. That’s not something someone wants to sign up for,” she said. “If I wanted to be a famous person in Alabama, I would make a funny Youtube video, I would write a great Huffington Post piece about Target clothes, but that’s not what they’re going to be known for. They’re going to be know for this….the exact thing they feared before coming forward is now taking place. Their names are being smeared and this is going to be the thing they’re going to be known for.”

If they wanted attention so badly that they were willing to endure such negative attention, they would not have waited this long on the Moore story, or anything else, for that matter. If they are willing to make up this kind of whopper for negative attention, then other instances of their fabulist creations would be easy to uncover, which is one of the ways the infamous Rolling Stone UVA story unraveled three years ago.

On the whole, the excuses seem weak. Lies of this magnitude leave trails that are not present. Conspiracies are difficult to pull off this quickly in the internet age. These accusations are holding up better under scrutiny than the stories that have crumbled when investigated. We will see how the defenses change once voters have time to weigh Nelson’s personal testimony (including her yearbook, which was signed by Roy Moore) and once older women, in particular, have had a chance to reflect on their reaction to similar accusations against Bill Clinton back in the 1990’s. Who believed the excuses then? Because the details may be different, but the pattern of excuse and dismissal is strikingly similar.

A note from Leslie: Georgi complied our disucssion. I chose the image. Why the Alanis Morissette album cover for the image? The title of the album, “Under Rug Swept” comes from the song “Hands Clean,” which was the first release off of the album back in 2002. Here are the lyrics. It is quite relevant to the topic at hand.

If it weren’t for your maturity none of this would have happened
If you weren’t so wise beyond your years I would’ve been able to control myself
If it weren’t for my attention you wouldn’t have been successful and
If it weren’t for me you would never have amounted to very much

Ooh this could be messy
But you don’t seem to mind
Ooh don’t go telling everybody
And overlook this supposed crime
We’ll fast forward to a few years later
And no one knows except the both of us
And I have honored your request for silence
And you’ve washed your hands clean of this

You’re essentially an employee and I like you having to depend on me
You’re kind of my protege and one day you’ll say you learned all you know from me
I know you depend on me like a young thing would to a guardian
I know you sexualize me like a young thing would and I think I like it

Ooh this could be messy
you don’t seem to mind
Ooh don’t go telling everybody
overlook this supposed crime
We’ll fast forward to a few years later
And no one knows except the both of us
And I have honored your request for silence
And you’ve washed your hands clean of this

What part of our history’s reinvented and under rug swept?
What part of your memory is selective and tends to forget?
What with this distance it seems so obvious?

Just make sure you don’t tell on me especially to members of your family
We best keep this to ourselves and not tell any members of our inner posse
I wish I could tell the world ’cause you’re such a pretty thing when you’re done up properly
I might want to marry you one day if you watch that weight and keep your firm body

Ooh this could get messy
Ooh you don’t seem to mind
Ooh don’t go telling everybody
and overlook this supposed crime
We’ll fast forward to a few years later
And no one knows except the both of us
And I have honored your request for silence
And you’ve washed your hands clean of this

Ooh this could get messy
Ooh I don’t seem to mind
Ooh don’t go telling everybody
and overlook this supposed crime
We’ll fast forward to a few years later
And no one knows except the both of us
And I have honored your request for silence
And you’ve washed your hands clean of this