Donald Trump comes out fighting for Republican candidate accused of child sex abuse
‘Jones would be a disaster!’ Mr Trump exclaimed, referring to the Democrat running against Roy Moore
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Your support makes all the difference.President Donald Trump has come out fighting for Republican candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused of child sex abuse.
Mr Moore, currently running for Alabama’s Senate seat in a special election against Democrat Doug Jones, has vehemently denied all the allegations against him.
Mr Trump tweeted: “The last thing we need in Alabama and the U.S. Senate is a Schumer/Pelosi puppet who is WEAK on Crime, WEAK on the Border, Bad for our Military and our great Vets, Bad for our 2nd Amendment, AND WANTS TO RAISES TAXES TO THE SKY. Jones would be a disaster!”
Representative Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer are the Democratic leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate, respectively.
Mr Trump has appeared to back Mr Moore, putting him at odds with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has called for Mr Moore to remove himself from the Alabama Senate race.
In another tweet on Sunday, the President said: “I endorsed Luther Strange in the Alabama Primary. He shot way up in the polls but it wasn’t enough. Can’t let Schumer/Pelosi win this race. Liberal Jones would be BAD!”
Mr Jones is a former US Attorney who spearheaded the prosecution of two Ku Klux Klansmen involved in the deadly 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
Mr Moore is alleged to have pursued underage girls while he was in his 30s and an assistant district attorney in Alabama.
Last Tuesday, after weeks of silence regarding the claims against Mr Moore, the President finally weighed in on the issue: “I can tell you one thing for sure: we don’t need a liberal person in there, a Democrat – [Doug] Jones,” Mr Trump told reporters, referring to the Alabama Senate seat.
“[Mr Moore] denies it. Look, he denies it. I mean, if you look at what is really going on, and you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours, he totally denies it.”
Mr Moore and Mr Jones are competing to fill the seat left vacant when Mr Sessions was appointed to be Attorney General. Republican Luther Strange was chosen to temporarily hold the position until a special election could be held.
Mr Strange - who had the backing of the Republican establishment - ran against Mr Moore in the primary but ultimately lost.
Allegations against Mr Moore first surfaced earlier this month when four women told The Washington Post that he had pursued them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. One of the women was just 14 at the time.
Multiple other women between the ages of 16 and 22 have since come forward and accused him of unwanted sexual contact.
Much of the alleged sexual misconduct is said to have occurred in the late 1970s, while one alleged instance of him groping a 28-year-old woman is said to have taken place in 1991.
Mr Moore has ardently denied all allegations against him, saying he has “not been guilty of sexual misconduct with anyone”.
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