Allegations of sexual misconduct against Senate candidate Roy Moore, R-Ala., were shocking late this week, but Moore's staunch supporters question the timing of the revelations from 38 years ago coming within one month of Dec. 12's special election.
"There was kind of a shock of 'oh my goodness, these accusations,' and then the second reaction is, 'Why now?'" GOP Alabama state Rep. Ed Henry told Politico. "It just stinks to high heaven. . . . It's intended to demoralize and cause Republicans not to vote in December."
Henry's defense of his candidate has also led to political ire being directed at him, because of his claims Moore "is the victim" here suggested to CNN's Anderson Cooper that victims of sexual misconduct are shamed in speaking out against their attackers.
"You have an accuser and the accused," Henry told CNN's Cooper on Friday night. "More often than not the accuser is the victim, but I do believe occasionally the accused is the victim.
"And I believe in this instance, Roy Moore is the victim. I believe he is the victim of a political hack job, and who's behind it? I don't know.
"I have no idea who paid for all of this and who will be paid for it in weeks to come."
A poll released Sunday also seemed to back up Henry's contention that Moore's support was not fading. In fact, his core evangelical base my be lining up behind him in as never before.
A JMC analytics poll released Sunday revealed that 37 percent of the evangelicals surveyed said the allegations made them more likely to vote for the GOP Senate candidate in the upcoming election.
Only 28 percent surveyed said the allegations made them less likely to vote for Moore. Another 34 percent said the allegations made no difference in their decision.
Overall, 29 percent of respondents in the poll said the allegations made them more likely to vote for Moore. That compares to 38 percent overall who told pollsters the allegations would make them less likely to support Moore.
The counter-accusation defense was echoed by Moore in a speech to the Mid-Alabama Republican Club in Vestavia Hills, according to Politico.
"I've been investigated more than any other person in this country," Moore told the crowd, according to the report. "That these grown women would wait 40 years to come forward right before an election to bring charges is absolutely unbelievable."
Jefferson County, Alabama’s Republican Party chair Sallie Bryant also stepped in to defend her candidate against the untimely accusations, calling them "very suspicious."
"I think that it's politically motivated," Bryant told Politico. "I am party chairman and so therefore I am for the party's nominees and for our candidates, but I really feel like the timing of this is very suspicious."
Faced with dwindling support in the Republican Party and severed campaign funding, Moore's backers have no choice but to dig in against late-campaign attacks, despite calls he withdraw at the 11th hour.
"It is disingenuous, in my opinion, for 50-something-year-old women to come forward four weeks prior to a major senatorial election," Henry told Cooper on Friday. "One of the 100 most powerful people in the world we're going to elect in four weeks — and four weeks out we have these allegations that no one in Alabama has heard about. It surfaces.
"It just reeks of politics."
The New York Times reported Alabama state law has locked in the Senate special election ballot and votes have already been cast by absentee ballot, although there had been some Republicans looking into lobbying for a delay in the Dec. 12 election until after the new year.
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