So far, the White House is urging people to be “cautious” about the allegations against Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore of Alabama documented in a Thursday article in the Washington Post. Citing 30 sources, the Post reports four teenage girls who now say the thirtysomething Moore asked them on dates, and, with some of them, initiated or tried to initiate sexual contact.
The youngest, Leigh Corfman, was 14 in 1979 when she says Moore began a relationship with her when the future state supreme court judge was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. On her second visit alone with Moore at his house, Corfman told the newspaper “he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes. He touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear.” There were three other women who also spoke to the Post on the record were between the ages of 16 and 18 in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the adult Moore took them on dates. Unlike Corfman, none of the others said they were molested.
Moore has defended himself by denying the accounts of the four women. “These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign,” he said in a statement to the Post.
President Donald Trump, through his press secretary, did not echo Moore in suggesting the story was politically motivated. “Like most Americans the president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person’s life,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday to reporters on Air Force One. “However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside.”
What about Vice President Mike Pence, who has also endorsed Moore? “The Vice President found the allegations in the story disturbing and believes, if true, this would disqualify anyone from serving in office,” said Pence’s press secretary, Alyssa Farah. I followed up with Farah to ask if Pence believes the allegations, or what would convince him they are true or false, but I have not yet received a response.
Moore is running for the remainder of the term won by Jeff Sessions, who resigned this year to become the attorney general. Moore defeated the incumbent Republican, Luther Strange, who was appointed to the seat after Sessions’ retirement, in the GOP primary, and faces Democrat Doug Jones in the general on December 12.
One More Thing—I’ve asked the National Republican Senatorial Committee if it has any plans to stop or temporarily cease providing resources to help elect Moore. The NRSC’s chair, Colorado senator Cory Gardner, released a statement Thursday saying Moore should drop out if the allegations are true. Katie Martin, the committee’s communications director, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Hollywood Watch—On a similar note, another entertainment star has been accused of sexual misconduct. The New York Times reports that five women say Louis C.K. acted inappropriately toward them in incidents stretching back 15 years.
President Trump is spending his Friday at an economic conference in Vietnam, meeting with business leaders from the Pacific region as he continues to push his message of reshaping America’s trade deals abroad.
At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO summit, Trump shared his vision for “a free and open Indo-Pacific—a place where sovereign and independent nations, with diverse cultures and many different dreams, can all prosper side-by-side, and thrive in freedom and in peace.”
“At the core of this partnership, we seek robust trade relationships rooted in the principles of fairness and reciprocity,” Trump said. “When the United States enters into a trading relationship with other countries or other peoples, we will, from now on, expect that our partners will faithfully follow the rules just like we do.”
Trump also boasted of America’s low unemployment and strong stock market, saying that “a new optimism has swept all across our country” and “the whole world is lifted by America’s renewal.”
Trump will continue to meet with foreign leaders as the week progresses, but the White House has apparently changed their plans about one meeting: Trump is no longer planning to sit down for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with press secretary Sarah Sanders citing “scheduling conflicts on both sides.”
“They’re going to be in the same place, so are they going to bump into each other and say hello? Certainly possible and likely,” Sanders said, referring to the summit. “But in terms of a scheduled, formal meeting, there’s not one on the calendar and we don’t anticipate there will be one.”
Tax Reform Watch—The House Ways and Means committee approved the Republican tax-reform legislation Thursday, meaning the next step toward passing the bill is a vote on the House floor. Before the bill left committee, however, chairman Kevin Brady amended the legislation to protect the adoption expenses deduction after the GOP proposal to scrap it was met with lots of pushback. My colleague John McCormack was on top of this story this week, and here’s his report on the change:
I asked the White House, which has been involved in crafting the tax-reform framework but has been publicly quiet about most of the details, if the president has a position on the adoption credit or if there was any pressure placed on lawmakers to keep it. I did not receive a response.
The Trump administration is beginning to implement its plans to beef up drug enforcement to combat America’s opioid crisis.
The Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration on Thursday announced plans to expand prosecution of people who traffic analogues and synthetics of the controlled opioid fentanyl. Fentanyl is a frequently prescribed opioid for severe or chronic pain, a fast-acting painkiller 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. But it is also a Schedule II drug that can be deadly when abused.
“Fentanyl is a good medicine, but a bad drug,” the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has said. “It has excellent pain relieving properties, but is liable to abuse and can rapidly lead to dependency.”
The DOJ said Thursday the change will “make it easier for federal prosecutors and agents to prosecute traffickers of all forms of fentanyl-related substances.”
“The bulk of illicit fentanyls arrive in the United States through the mail or express shipping systems, or are imported into the United States across the southwest border,” said a statement from the DOJ. “Overseas chemical manufacturers, aided by illicit domestic distributors, currently attempt to evade regulatory controls by creating structural variants of fentanyl that are not directly listed under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Without the action announced today, prosecutors must overcome cumbersome evidentiary hurdles to secure convictions of these traffickers under the Analogue Act.”
In October, President Trump declared a public health emergency over the opioid crisis. A presidential commission on the crisis released a report last week, calling for increased training for prescribers and more federal funds for prevention and treatment programs. Deaths from opioids have sharply risen over the past four years, including deaths from synthetic opioids.
Mueller Watch—The plot thickens slightly in the special counsel investigation into Russia collusion. CNN first reported that Robert Mueller’s investigators have interviewed Stephen Miller, the senior White House aide who also worked on the Trump campaign. “Miller’s role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey was among the topics discussed during the interview as part of the probe into possible obstruction of justice,” reported CNN, citing one source.
Meanwhile, the low-level foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, George Papadopoulos, appears to have had a larger role than Trump allies had been claiming since his guilty plea about lying to the FBI was revealed. CNN reports that Papadopoulos represented the campaign abroad several times since his effort in the summer of 2016 to coordinate a meeting between Team Trump and Russian officials.
Song of the Day—“I Shall Be Released” by Chrissie Hynde
Correction 9:15 a.m.: Due to an editing error, in the paragraph stating that “Meanwhile, the low-level foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, George Papadopoulos, appears to have had a larger role than Trump allies had been claiming since his guilty plea about lying to the FBI was revealed. CNN reports that Papadopoulos represented the campaign abroad several times since his effort in the summer of 2016 to coordinate a meeting between Team Trump and Russian officials.”—in the first instance George Papadopoulos was misidentified as “George Stephanopoulos.”
