Doug Jones Campaign Uses Women to Attack Roy Moore

U.S. Senate candidate Doug Jones, speaks to the media about his role in the prosecutions o
AP/Brynn Anderson

Democrat Alabama nominee for U.S. Senate Doug Jones chose Thanksgiving Eve to use the names of seven women to attack Republican nominee Judge Roy Moore as “immoral” in a new ad that includes several women who have called their decades-old interactions with Moore consensual.

“They were girls when Roy Moore immorally pursued them,” claims the Jones campaign ad that opens with the names and faces of seven women.

Four of the seven women named in Jones’ ad have not alleged sexual misconduct from Moore. Each of the seven have referred to interactions with Moore when he was in his 30s.

Three of the women named are those who were named in a November 9 Washington Post article on Moore that described the three women’s interactions with Moore as consensual. Each was of legal age of consent, between 16 and 18 years old, at the time.

A fourth woman highlighted in the Post report, did accuse Moore of sexual misconduct with her when she was 14 years old. The Post reported, “Of the four women, the youngest at the time was Corfman, who is the only one who says she had sexual contact with Moore that went beyond kissing.”

Beverly Young Nelson is also named and pictured in the ad. Nelson came out with accusations against Moore in a press conference led by famed lawyer Gloria Allred days after the Post report. Nelson claimed that Moore signed her yearbook. Since then the legitimacy of the signature has been brought into question with Allred responding in a CNN interview that she was “not denying, we’re not admitting, we’re not addressing. We will not be distracted, and we will pursue a just result for our client.”

Gena Richardson, featured in the Jones ad, told the Post in an article published on November 15, that she was 18 when she went on a date with Moore who had pursued her when he was 30. She said that at the end of the date he gave her a “forceful” kiss.

The seventh woman featured in the ad, Kelly Harrison Thorp, has only alleged that he asked her out when she was 17 and she said no. She told AL.com that she knows accuser Corfman.

Jones’ ad comes as he now faces criticism from a woman who settled with his client University of Alabama-Birmingham and who has said that Jones called her claims of child sex abuse from older students when she was just 15, “without merit” and a “cynical attempt to extort money.” She told AL.com “He was not a victim’s advocate…He was all for blaming the victim, honestly.”

A Politico article posted on Wednesday made the case that Jones could win the race if he tamps down his extreme “rhetoric” on abortion, not necessarily his “extreme position” on it. After three paragraphs of blasting “white evangelicals” and President Donald Trump, the piece pins Jones’ success or failure on what Politico itself refers to as Jones’ “extreme position on abortion.” Jones has been clear in stating that he believes in abortion up until the moment “a baby is born.”

Jones has also come out against Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall along the U.S. southern border. Jones has also advocated for more regulations on gun shows, believes that the Second Amendment as “limitations,” and in “smart” gun laws.

Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana 

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