Donald Trump Cuts the Crap, Endorses Alleged Child Molester [Updated]

Senate candidate Roy Moore has been accused by at least eight women of sexual misconduct when they were teens, and he was a man in his early thirties. Donald Trump has been hinting for some time that Moore is not only not guilty of child molestation, but that he is the best thing for Alabama and America. Now, Trump’s stopped hinting.

On Monday, Trump tweeted an explicit endorsement of Moore:

In early November, when the stories about Moore’s history of allegedly abusing young girls first began to circulate, Trump suggested through his mouthpiece Sarah Huckabee Sanders that Moore should step down from the race “if the allegations are true.” By November 21, Trump was defending Moore, saying that Moore’s denial of his accusers’ accounts should be respectfully considered. Less than a week after that, Trump was tweeting about Doug Jones, Moore’s opponent, implying that having Doug Jones in a Senate seat would be worse than a child molester. And now, here we are.

It’s not surprising that Trump feels comfortable coming forward in support of a man who eight women say has abused children, since his party is really leading the way in that regard. Despite hemming and hawing about replacing Moore if elected, and gestures by the RNC, Republicans have realized they don’t need to condemn Moore, because he’s probably going to win. Here’s McConnell stating that he’ll “let the people of Alabama make the call” about whether or not it’s okay to have an accused child molester in the Senate:

As CBS News reports, about 71 percent of Republican voters believe the accusations against Moore are false. Though Jones had a brief lead in the polls immediately following the first allegations, he is now at 43 percent to Moore’s 49 percent. 48 percent of Roy Moore voters believe he’s the best man for the position, while 52 percent say they’re voting for him because he’ll cast conservative votes. So, the lives of women and girls are just the price they’ll pay for ideology.

Update December 4. 12:43pm:

Roy Moore’s wife, Kayla Moore, claimed on Facebook that Trump called her husband to offer his “full support,” Talking Points Memo reports:

It appears the call came a few hours after his tweets on the matter.