Fox News host Sean Hannity said it “doesn’t matter what the media says” and that he has received answers from GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore, after issuing an ultimatum yesterday that Moore must respond to the inconsistencies in his defense regarding mounting sexual misconduct allegations within 24 hours, or rescind his candidacy.
“I’m not making excuses, I don’t know the full truth here,” Hannity said on his radio show Wednesday. “I don’t know. Anyway, without giving away details, I have gotten an answer from the Roy Moore campaign on the questions that I had.”
“At the end of the day my thoughts are these. It doesn’t matter what the media says, it doesn’t matter what Mitch McConnell says, who cares what Mitch — he’s tried to influence the people of Alabama the whole time in this election,” he added. “And I just have faith in the people of Alabama, they are the ones that will and should decide.”
GOP lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have asked Moore to exit the race amid the allegations. Moore has resisted so far.
Moore sent a letter to Hannity, which was posted on Twitter on Wednesday, addressing the allegations. He notes that one of the accusers was a party in a divorce action before him when he was a judge in 1999 and that the accuser did not mention his involvement in that case when she came forward with her allegations.
Additionally, Moore said he believed “tampering” had occurred with his signature, which appears in one of the accuser’s yearbooks.
“Those initials as well as the date under the signature block and the printed name of the restaurant are written in a style inconsistent with the rest of the yearbook inscription. The ‘7’s’ in ‘Christmas 1977’ are in a noticeably different script than the ‘7’s’ in the date ’12-22-77,'” he wrote in the letter.
Moore’s attorney addressed these same issues during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
The Washington Post published a report last week in which four women went on the record about their alleged interactions with Moore. One woman, Leigh Corfman, said Moore initiated sexual contact with her when she was 14 years old at Moore’s home. She said she did not have intercourse with Moore and requested to be taken home. The other three women said the former judge sought dates with them, despite the fact he was nearly twice their age and they were between the ages of 16 and 18.
Since last week, more women have come forward.
A fifth woman, Beverly Young Nelson, came forward Monday and claimed Moore sexually assaulted her when she was 16. She said Moore offered to drive her home from work on night, but instead parked in parking lot behind her restaurant. She alleges he groped her and grabbed her neck to “force my head onto his crotch.”
Moore denied these accusations in his letter, and added that because he is seeking legal action, he “cannot comment further.”
“I adamantly deny the allegations of Leigh Corfman and Beverly Nelson, did not date underage girls, and have taken steps to begin a civil action for defamation,” the letter said. “Because of that, at the direction of counsel, I cannot comment further.”
However, the accusations keep mounting.
Tina Johnson alleged that Roy Moore groped her as she in his law office after conducting legal business back in 1991, AL.com reported Wednesday.
Additionally, Kelly Harrison Thorp said she was 17 and was working as a hostess when Moore asked her if she would go out him, and told he he went out with “girls your age all the time.”
Hannity initially discredited the claims of the first four women, saying “It’s he said, she [said].”
He faced backlash after it appeared he had called the encounters “consensual,” but he later issued an apology for not being “totally clear” and said his words had been taken out of context.
Hannity also invited Moore onto his radio program on Friday, where Moore claimed the allegations were “politically motivated.”
Moore is up against Democrat Doug Jones next month in the Alabama special election to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ empty U.S. Senate seat.
