VESTAVIA HILLS, Ala. -- GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore said defiantly Saturday morning at a political gathering in Alabama that allegations against him amounted to "fake news" perpetrated by The Washington Post and political opponents engaged "in a desperate attempt to stop my campaign."
The Post reported earlier last week that four women said Moore had pursued sexual or romantic relations with them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.
"These campaign attacks are false and completely untrue," Moore told an audience of more than a hundred supporters, who gave Moore several standing ovations during his speech at the Veterans Day breakfast.
"More than being completely untrue, they are deeply hurtful to me personally." He talked about his marriage, four children and five granddaughters. "I have the highest regard for the protection of young children," he said.
"To be attacked on allegations for sexual misconduct contradicts my entire career in law. I want to make it clear: ... I have not been guilty of sexual misconduct with anyone. These allegations occur four and a half weeks before the election. Why now?"
Moore said he has been investigated more "than any other person in this country. To think that grown women would wait 40 years to come forward right before an election is absolutely unbelievable," he said to a smattering of applause from the audience.
He said details would emerge soon about the claims against him. "We expect the citizens of Alabama to see through this charade," he said.
Moore arrived at the event Saturday morning with his wife, Kayla, amid boos from about a dozen protesters gathered outside, including some chanting "No Moore." The former Alabama chief justice refused to answer questions as he walked inside.
Moore's comments at his first public speaking engagement since the Post report followed a radio interview with Sean Hannity on Friday in which he addressed the charges of sexual misconduct. "These allegations are completely false and misleading," Moore told Hannity. He specifically denied the Post report that he had a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl, Leigh Corfman, in 1979. However, in the interview Friday, Moore did not rule out that he may have dated girls in their late teens when he was in his early 30s.
"I was horrified," Lisa Wienhold, 56, who was protesting outside, said of the allegations. "I never liked Roy Moore that much, but when I heard about that, I was beyond horrified. ... There are a lot of smart people who have been on the other side for whom maybe this will be the final straw."
A half-dozen Moore supporters acknowledged that Corfman might have been telling the truth. But ultimately, they said, they do not believe her and are standing confidently by Moore.
"From what I've read, it seems like this 14-year-old girl who is now 50-something has a somewhat checkered past," said Johnny Creel, 56, an insurance broker wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat.
"You have to judge a story like that on the credibility of the accuser. ... I don't think it happened."
Willie Casey, one of the few blacks at the event, said the story is the "hottest thing going in Birmingham," especially in the black community. But he said the allegations have not changed his position.
"I believe in his biblical principles," said Casey, 70, comparing the United States to Sodom and Gomorrah. "I think in America, we've gone so far out of the Bible, someone needs to bring it back."
Ann Eubank, who helps lead a conservative group called Alabama Legislative Watchdogs, said The Washington Post was part of a political conspiracy against Moore.
"Y'all chose the month before to bring a hit piece thinking you could influence how Alabamians vote. And that's what makes Alabamians mad. Don't come down here and tell us how to vote," she said.
Moore, who won the Republican nomination touting his belief in the supremacy of a Christian God over the Constitution, has invoked a defiant tone.
His breakfast remarks occurred as a growing number of national party leaders called for Moore to leave the race before the Dec. 12 election. Two former GOP presidential candidates, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Mitt Romney, called for Moore to step down immediately, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Mike Pence said Moore should step aside if the allegations prove true. On Friday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee pulled out of a joint fundraising committee with Moore, depriving him of a key path to securing campaign dollars.
President Donald Trump, who has been traveling in Asia, said Saturday that he's been too busy reading documents and hasn't had time to catch up on television news coverage about Moore. "So I have not seen very much about him, about it," Trump told reporters traveling with him as Air Force One flew from Danang to Hanoi in Vietnam.
Yet on Saturday morning, Moore's campaign sent out its own appeal of support for the candidate, who vowed he will not give up.
"The Obama-Clinton Machine's liberal media lapdogs just launched the most vicious and nasty round of attacks against me I've EVER faced," he wrote in a fundraising appeal sent by the campaign under his wife's name.
Information for this article was contributed by Jill Colvin of The Associated Press.
A Section on 11/12/2017