"It was 40 years ago," Alabama Marion County GOP chair David Hall tells me. "I really don't see the relevance of it. He was 32. She was supposedly 14. She's not saying that anything happened other than they kissed."
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Me: "The story said she said he tried to get her to touch his genitals." Hall: "Well, she said he may have TRIED to. But we're talking something that somebody SAID happened, 40 years ago. It wouldn't affect whether or not I'd vote for him."
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More Hall: “The other women that they’re using to corrobrate: number one, one was 19, one was 17, one was 16. There’s nothing wrong with a 30-year-old single male asking a 19-year-old, a 17-year-old, or a 16-year-old out on a date."
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After a long pause, Alabama Bibb County Republican chairman Jerry Pow tells me he'd vote for Roy Moore even if Moore did commit a sex crime against a girl. "I would vote for Judge Moore because I wouldn't want to vote for Doug," he says. "I'm not saying I support what he did."
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“I really can’t comment until I have a chance to digest it," says Tallapoosa County GOP chairwoman Denise Bates. “Nothing to say," says Marengo County chairman Robert Duke.
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Alabama Mobile County GOP chairman John Skipper: "It does not really surprise me. I think it is a typical Democratic - Democrat - ploy to discredit Judge Moore, a sincere, honest, trustworthy individual."
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"These allegations that surfaced today - to my knowledge, they're all bunk. No credibility whatsoever," Mobile County Republican chairman John Skipper tells me.
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If these allegations against Moore were true, Mitch McConnell's anti-Moore allies would have obviously found them and released them during the primary, Mobile County Republican chairman John Skipper tells me.
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Alabama Covington County GOP Chairman William Blocker tells me Democrats convinced these women to tell a fake story to damage Moore. I told him the 14-year-old became a Trump voter. "That's the typical background or profile of somebody they would be using for that," he said.
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"If they said she was a Hillary supporter, then she'd be more dismissed by the local voters here in the state of Alabama. You'd have to paint her as a Trump supporter to be of any credibility," Covington County GOP Chairman William Blocker says.
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"Yeah!" Covington County GOP Chairman William Blocker tells me he'd consider voting Moore even if hard proof of sexual abuse emerged. "There is NO option to support to support Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee. When you do that, you are supporting the entire Democrat party."
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Tally from my calls to Alabama GOP county chairs: 4 vehemently pro-Moore, 3 no comment/"haven't read the story yet," 15 I couldn't reach, 0 criticism of Moore.
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Postscript: GOP officer who'd vote Moore even if he was a proven sex offender refused in 2015 to accept the legalization of gay marriage, saying "it's wrong."pic.twitter.com/QBTRCxbcNF
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"Other than being with an underage person - he didn't really force himself," Alabama Geneva County GOP chairman Riley Seibenhener tells me. "I know that's bad enough, but I don't know. If he withdraws, it's five weeks to the election...that would concede it to the Democrat."
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Alabama Geneva County GOP chairman Riley Seibenhener, who called me back, says he doesn't believe the allegations are true, but if they're true he won't support him - but, at the same time, it's not "forcible rape." "I know that 14-year-olds don't make good decisions," he adds.
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End of conversation
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