The White House has a simple explanation for Donald Trump’s endorsement of Roy Moore, the Alabama candidate for Senate accused of sexually assaulting multiple teenagers: The president’s agenda takes priority.
On Tuesday (Dec. 5), an uncomfortable-looking Sarah Sanders, the press secretary, was asked why the president supports Moore this week, after refusing to do so last month. The White House had originally said that if the accusations were true, Moore should step down.
Sanders replied that, while the accusations might be true, the president would take that risk in order to “have a person that supports his agenda.”
“I didn’t say they were lying,” she said of the women accusing Moore, and the president finds “still finds those [accusations] concerning,” but it doesn’t matter.
“Isn’t there a moral decision you’re making here?,” asked another reporter. “This is somebody who has been accused of child abuse, of molesting children,” he said of Moore.
“That’s something for the people of Alabama to decide,” said Sanders.
Moore has been accused by multiple women, several of them Trump voters, of sexually assaulting them when they were teenagers and he in his 30s. One was 14-years-old when Moore allegedly pushed her to touch his erect penis.
Alabama’s senate vote is Dec. 12. The tax reform package that the Senate and House are working this week to reconcile into a bill has no support from Democrats. It passed the Senate by two votes.