By Josh Moon
Alabama Political Reporter
The Roy Moore campaign held a press event on Tuesday afternoon.
It was dumb.
I could stop there and you would likely know all you need to know about that … I’m not sure what exactly took place on the capitol steps Tuesday afternoon. A lecture? A physical manifestation of a message board troll ranting?
It was something in that ballpark, and very little of it was helpful, informative or even bearable.
It was 15 minutes of three random guys making condescending remarks to the media and attacking — without a shred of real evidence — two women who have accused Roy Moore of sexual assault.
But that’s not really why it was dumb.
Let’s be clear about one thing: Roy Moore has the right to defend himself.
If he didn’t do the things that these women have accused him of doing — these very serious, heinous things — he has every right, just as any of us would, to refute those claims publicly, to stand in a public forum and call his accusers liars and detail all of the ways their stories are inaccurate.
And no matter how we feel about his politics and his beliefs, we should hear him out and consider any evidence he has to present. And should that evidence be sound and convincing, or even enough to cause us reasonable doubt, we should move the conversation about this race to the more common political issues.
But to date, Moore hasn’t done that.
As Republican Alabama state Sen. Dick Brewbaker — the only Republican in the Alabama Legislature to state publicly that he won’t be voting for Moore — pointed out on Twitter recently, Moore’s only real attempt at answering any of these allegations, which came in an interview with Sean Hannity, did very little to sway anyone, including Hannity. There have been zero attempts by Moore since to sit down and go through the allegations.
No matter how you feel about Moore, that fact has to trouble you — that a man who claims serious allegations against him are completely false seems unwilling and/or unable to sit down and answer the specific charges.
Instead, he trots out one group of completely unreliable “spokespeople” after another, all with the same general message: Roy Moore has never acted inappropriately around me, he’s a great man, the liberal media/establishment GOP/gays/transgenders are out to get Moore, the future of the planet is at stake in this race.
That was Tuesday’s press event.
More fluff and hyperbole.
The Moore camp has been living with these allegations for the better part of two weeks now. They’re still nitpicking little details, such as whether Leigh Corfman had a phone in her bedroom or if the dumpsters behind which Moore is accused of parking to assault Beverly Young Nelson were on the side or at the back of Old Hickory House restaurant.
That’s not a good look.
That there hasn’t been a single hole punched in the original Washington Post story is — considering we’re talking about multiple allegations from nearly 40 years ago — simply astounding.
And yet, despite those very serious issues, Moore was seemingly starting to recover from a damaging week. The fury over the scandal had diminished. The national media was starting to become distracted by other news. This whole thing had the same feel as the days after Trump’s “Access Hollywood” tape. There’s even a major holiday coming up to serve as a buffer.
Then, boom. Moore’s campaign grabbed the spotlight once again and reminded everyone about the salacious details and terrible accusations.
All to say … nothing.
LIke I said, it was dumb.
