A Fifth Woman Accuses Senate Candidate Roy Moore of Sexual Misconduct
November 14, 2017 by admin
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Mr. Moore, a judge who was twice removed from the state’s high court, first for refusing to remove the Ten Commandments from the Supreme Court grounds, then for refusing to accept gay marriage, responded defiantly. He showed no sign of leaving the race ahead of Alabama’s Dec. 12 special election date.
The person who should step aside is @SenateMajLdr Mitch McConnell. He has failed conservatives and must be replaced. #DrainTheSwamp
—
Judge Roy Moore (@MooreSenate)
Nov. 13, 2017
In an afternoon statement, Mr. Moore’s campaign described Ms. Allred as “a sensationalist leading a witch hunt, and she is only around to create a spectacle.” The statement, issued before Ms. Allred’s news conference in New York, denied again “any sexual misconduct with anyone” by Mr. Moore.
Republicans here and in Alabama have been up in arms over the accusations, published last week in The Washington Post, that Mr. Moore pursued sexual or romantic relationships with teenagers when he was in his 30s. The reports have upended a race in a state that has not elected a Democratic senator in 25 years.
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Brynn Anderson/Associated Press
In a fund-raising appeal, Mr. Moore reached out to his supporters with the subject line: “Mitch McConnell’s plot to destroy me.”
“Apparently Mitch McConnell and the establishment G.O.P. would rather elect a radical pro-abortion Democrat than a conservative Christian,” he wrote.
And Mr. Moore’s wife, Kayla Moore, lashed out in a Facebook post on Monday, complaining about “a witch hunt” in Alabama and claiming that “we are gathering evidence of money being paid to people who would come forward.”
“Washington establishment and Democrat Party will stop at nothing to stop our campaign,” she wrote. “Prayers appreciated…..”
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But with Mr. McConnell now firmly against his election, Mr. Moore and his candidacy promise to deepen the divide between Republican leaders in Congress and the populist wing of the party that is standing by the Alabamian. Another Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, also called for Mr. Moore to drop out of the race on Monday.
I have now read Mr. Moore’s statement and listened to his radio interview in which he denies the charges. I did not find his denials to be convincing and believe that he should withdraw from the Senate race in Alabama.
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Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins)
Nov. 13, 2017
Anxious Republican officials spent much of the weekend trying to determine what, if anything, they could do to halt Mr. Moore without simply turning over the seat. If Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee, wins, it would narrow the Republican advantage in the Senate to a single seat.
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Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times
But if Mr. Moore stays in and goes on to win, it could leave Senate Republicans with the difficult question of whether to stop him from being seated or seating him and immediately moving to expel him from the chamber.
One idea now being discussed under this scenario, brought up by two different White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, would be for Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama to immediately appoint Attorney General Jeff Sessions to what had been his seat when it becomes vacant again. Mr. Sessions remains highly popular among Alabama Republicans, but his relationship with President Trump has waned since he recused himself from the investigation of the role that Russia played in last year’s campaign.
Republicans in Washington, though, have not ruled out fielding a write-in candidate and some of the party’s outside groups were expected to conduct surveys this week of who would be most formidable prospect, according to officials familiar with the plans.
Democrats, who have been restrained about their prospects in such a conservative state, said that if additional women like the one joining Ms. Allred tell their stories, it would undermine Mr. Moore’s case that he is being smeared in a single newspaper article.
“The more people that come out of the woodwork, the more women with similar stories, the more credible it becomes,” said Zac McCrary, an Alabama-based Democratic pollster. “It’s going to become easier to see through Roy Moore’s non-denial denials.”
Democrats have begun raising money in earnest for Mr. Jones, a former prosecutor who sent Ku Klux Klansmen to jail for the infamous Birmingham church bombing of 1963 that killed four young girls.
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At the news conference in New York, Ms. Nelson grew emotional as she described the assault, which she said happened one night after her shift ended at a local restaurant, where she was a waitress. Her boyfriend was late that night to pick her up after work, she said, and Mr. Moore offered her a ride home. Ms. Nelson said that instead of driving her home, Mr. Moore drove to the back of the restaurant, parked his vehicle and forced himself on her.
Ms. Allred displayed a yearbook she and Ms. Nelson said is signed by Mr. Moore. The attorney said that Ms. Nelson contacted her to “enlist my help and support in coming forward publicly” following the allegations by other accusers. Ms. Allred said that her law firm spoke to Ms. Nelson’s mother and sister, who verified the story.
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Lucas Jackson/Reuters
The New York Times has not independently spoken to the family. Ms. Allred said that Ms. Nelson is willing to testify under oath.
Ms. Nelson said that she and her husband supported President Trump during the 2016 election, an attempt to neutralize arguments that she is making the claims for political reasons. Ms. Allred also pre-empted attacks that she is acting with partisan interests.
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Southeast Asia summit draft statement skips over Rohingya crisis
November 13, 2017 by admin
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MANILA (Reuters) – A draft of the statement to be issued after a Southeast Asian summit makes no mention of the exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar’s Rakhine state following a military crackdown that has been described by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing.
One paragraph of the communique, seen by Reuters on Monday, mentions the importance of humanitarian relief provided for victims of natural disasters in Vietnam and a recent urban battle with Islamist militants in the Philippines, as well as “affected communities” in northern Rakhine state.
The statement was drawn up by the Philippines, current chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – which includes Myanmar – whose leaders met for a plenary session in Manila on Monday.
The draft did not give any details of the situation in northern Rakhine or use the term Rohingya for the persecuted Muslim minority, which Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has asked foreign leaders to avoid.
The government in mostly-Buddhist Myanmar regards the Rohingya as illegal migrants from Bangladesh and does not recognize the term.
Well over 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to find shelter in refugee camps after military clearance operations were launched in response to attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts on Aug. 25.
The plight of the Rohingya has brought outrage from around the world and there have been calls for democracy champion Suu Kyi to be stripped of the Nobel peace prize she won in 1991 because she has not condemned the Myanmar military’s actions.
In September, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the situation in Rakhine was best described as ethnic cleansing.
Some members of ASEAN, particularly Muslim-majority Malaysia, have voiced concern. However, in keeping with ASEAN’s principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of one another, the issue appears to have been put aside at the summit.
In September, Malaysia disavowed a statement issued by the Philippines on behalf of ASEAN’s foreign ministers as misrepresenting “the reality” because it did not identify the Rohingya as an affected community in Rakhine state.
Suu Kyi, who did not mention the crisis in a speech after arriving in Manila on Sunday, criticized ASEAN’s principle of non-interference herself in 1999 when she was fighting for democracy in a country then ruled by a military junta.
“This policy of non-interference is just an excuse for not helping,” she wrote in an opinion column in the Thai daily the Nation at the time. “In this day and age, you cannot avoid interference in the matters of other countries.”
Roberto Romulo, a former Philippine foreign minister, told the Philippine news channel ANC that there appeared to be no discussion about the Rohingya at the ASEAN summit.
“They’re treating with a great deal of respect a discredited Nobel Peace Prize winner like Aung San Suu Kyi,” he said.
Amnesty International Philippines representative Wilnor Papa told ANC that the ASEAN leaders would talk about “terrorism and peace and order … but there are a whole lot of elephants in the room they won’t be talking about, that people are trying to ignore.”
Reporting by John Chalmers; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan