President Trump stumps in support for Roy Moore
— -- Rallying supporters at a venue just 20 miles away from the Alabama border, President Trump sought to discredit one of the women accusing Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual misconduct in calling on Alabama voters to vote for the Moore in the upcoming special election.
"How many people here are from the great state of Alabama?" Trump asked the audience about an hour into his remarks at an event by the president's re-election campaign.
"Did you see what happened today? Do you know the yearbook? Did you see that? There was a little mistake made. She started writing things in the yearbook. Oh, what are we going to do? Gloria Allred, any time you see her you know something's going wrong," the president said, referring to the lawyer for Moore accuser Beverly Young Nelson.
Nelson is one of one eight women who have come forward with accusations of sexual misconduct against Moore and has brought forward a yearbook from 1977 which she says Moore signed prior to allegedly assaulting her. Moore has denied it’s his handwriting in the yearbook, and his supporters have further sought to discredit her story, noting differences in some of the handwriting on the inscription.
Nelson told ABC News Friday that she wrote a note under the inscription she says is Moore's inscription.“I had wrote under it where it happened at,” she said, but maintained that Moore "wrote the note and signed his name.”
The president, who has endorsed Moore in the election despite the multiple sexual misconduct allegations that have been leveled against him, said Friday night that the Republican Party can't afford to lose a vote in the Senate, where Republicans maintain a slim 2-vote majority.
"We cannot afford ...to lose a seat in the very, very close United States senate. We can't afford it, folks. We can't," Trump said. "We can't afford to have a liberal Democrat who is completely controlled by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. We can't do it."
He went on to say, "So get out and vote for Roy Moore."
The White House maintains that the president remains concerned about the allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against Moore but say that Moore's denials should also be taken under consideration.
President Trump's remarks on Moore Friday night was the first time he has touted the candidate in a political campaign setting, but the president has previously made supportive statements about Moore's candidacy -- tweeting on Friday morning "VOTE ROY MOORE!"
