By Joanne Kim
Staff Writer
Roy Moore, a 70-year-old Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, allegedly initiated sexual encounters with a 14-year-old girl when he was in his 30’s. Moore strongly denied that allegation and other alleged sexual encounters with teenage girls, according to The Washington Post.
Moore was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney when he allegedly met 14-year-old Leigh Corfman sitting on a bench in Etowah County, Alabama with her mother, Nancy Wells. As he chatted with Corfman, Moore learned Wells would be attending a child custody hearing. Wells said Moore offered to watch Corfman during the court proceedings.
“I thought, how nice for him to want to take care of my little girl,” Wells said.
Eventually Moore asked Corfman for her phone number.
Moore picked Corfman up from a street corner on their first visit without her mother’s knowledge, according to Corfman on Today.
Corfman assumed they would be meeting romantically. Though her friends warned her against seeing an older man, she went along with Moore’s plans, according to Today.
Moore drove Corfman to his home, complimented her repeatedly, and began to kiss her, according to Today.
On the second visit, Moore allegedly laid down blankets on the floor and took off his own clothes and eventually Corfman’s, according to Today.
“I was expecting candlelight and roses, and what I got was very different,” Corfman said, according to Today.
He touched her over her underwear and bra and guided her to touch him over his underwear, according to Today.
“Please just get this over with,” Corfman thought, according to The Washington Post.
Other women say Moore pursued them when he was in his early 30’s. Wendy Miller claimed he asked her out on a date when she was 16 years old. Debbie Wesson Gibson also said Moore asked her out when she was 17 years old. Gloria Thacker claimed she was 18 years old when she began dating Moore, according to The Washington Post.
In a written statement, Moore called these allegations “a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign.”
John Skipper, a former chair of the Mobile County Republican Party, is a firm supporter of Moore, according to The New York Times.
“Most of (the Alabama Republicans he knew) will not be shocked and will rather be expecting these shenanigans being pulled by the Democrats as standard operating procedure,” Skipper said, according to The New York Times.
Corfman voted Republican in the last three presidential elections. She confessed she decided against confronting Moore in his first campaign for supreme court justice of Alabama in 2000. She was worried about how it would affect her two children still in school, according to The Washington Post.
Republicans are aware Moore could lose voter support.
Some senators like Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado want to expel Moore if he wins the election, according to Politico.
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a member of the Republican Party, feels Moore should voluntarily step down if the allegations are true, according to The Atlantic.
“I believe the women,” McConnell said, according to The Atlantic.
