President Trump has officially endorsed Roy Moore’s Senate race in Alabama, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has declared that voters should decide whether or not to vote for an alleged pedophile. Now, the Republican National Committee has resumed funding the man who has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least six women and reportedly had to be kept away from high school cheerleaders and a shopping mall, lest he cruise for dates.
CNN reports that while the Senate campaign arm is still standing firm on not resuming financial contributions to Moore’s race, the RNC has decided to change course because of Trump’s endorsement:
The Republican National Committee will transfer funds to the Alabama Republican Party following President Donald Trump’s endorsement Monday of GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore in that state’s special election next week, according to a senior RNC official. The official added, “The RNC is the political arm of the president and we support the President.”
While Trump and the RNC are backing Moore, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is not changing its stance. An NRSC source says it is staying out of the race and that Chairman Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado remains committed to this position.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports newly revealed evidence from a Moore accuser, Debbie Wesson Gibson, who produced a scrapbook that detailed an alleged relationship between them when he was 34, and she was 17. Gibson produces notes that are not unlike the yearbook scrawling that Beverly Young Nelson showed reporters during a press conference alongside attorney Gloria Allred in November.
A former FBI forensic examiner, Mark Songer, observed a graduation card purportedly from Moore and told the Post that it “appears to be naturally prepared.” And there’s much more in the scrapbook about Gibson and Moore’s alleged 1981 relationship, including these details:
On a page titled “remembrances,” she had listed her graduation gifts line by line, including “$10, card” from “Roy S. Moore,” and a check mark indicating she had sent a thank-you card.
On a page titled “the best times,” she had written: “Wednesday night, 3-4-81. Roy S. Moore and I went out for the first time. We went out to eat at Catfish Cabin in Albertville. I had a great time.” She had underlined “great” twice.
The scrapbook also contained a photo of Gibson as a high school senior, and when she saw it, she said, she thought to herself, “That’s the age I was when I dated Roy Moore, because my braces were off.”
That part about the braces coming off around the time that she dated Moore is, well, unsettling. Gibson told the Post that she and Moore enjoyed a few months of dating, but that they broke up when she left for college. Maybe because she was too old for him? Yes, this story — and the fact that Trump, McConnell, and the RNC are back on the Moore bandwagon — really is peak 2017.
(Via CNN & Washington Post)