Bill Press: Pedophile vs. Democrat

Here’s a good rule of thumb about people who wear religion on their sleeve: The more they brag about how much they love Jesus, the more likely they are to count among the world’s worst sinners.

Don’t believe it? Look at Bible-Thumper Roy Moore. He struts like a Christian peacock. He campaigns as a Christian, not a Republican. He preaches allegiance to the Bible over allegiance to the Constitution. In 2005, he told me that homosexuality should be illegal, and was the same as sex with a horse. He refused to obey a court order to remove a statue of the Ten Commandments from a state building.

{mosads}And even now, accused of behavior as un-Christian as you can imagine — sexually preying on four women when they were still teenagers and he was in his 30s — Moore’s defense is wrapping himself in Jesus’s cloak. “I believe you and I have a duty as God-fearing Americans to stand up and fight back against the forces of evil waging an all-out war on our conservative values,” he emailed his supporters on Monday.

Which, you must admit, is a new first in American politics: a pedophile calling himself “God-fearing” while labeling those of us who oppose sex with children as “forces of evil.” If that doesn’t negate everything Christianity stands for, what does?

As disgusting as Roy Moore’s history with teenage girls was the reluctance of so many Republicans to condemn him outright and demand he drop out of the race. Initially, only John McCain said that Moore should “immediately” step aside. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and several other senators joined him yesterday. But President Trump and others are still hiding behind the lame position that Moore should only quit the race “if these charges are proven true.”

Which is the biggest cop-out of criminal behavior ever. The Washington Post reported on-the-record accounts of four women about Moore’s predatory and illegal behavior, backed up by interviews with 30 friends and family, versus the denial of one crackpot candidate. What more evidence do they need? As we’ve learned from the case of Harvey Weinstein and others, it’s hard enough for women to come forward and tell the truth about sexual abuse. It’s absurd to believe that four women would conspire to come forward and lie about it.

Not only that, given an opportunity on Sean Hannity’s radio show to deny he dated teenage girls, the sanctimonious Moore didn’t. Because he couldn’t. Instead, he gave the skin-crawling assurance that “I don’t remember ever dating any girl without the permission of her mother.” Even in Alabama, that doesn’t fly.

Bottom line: Two things are clear. Roy Moore is guilty as sin. And Roy Moore’s not going to drop out of the race. Which leaves Republicans with three options: run a write-in campaign against him; refuse to seat him in the Senate; or defend having him in the Senate when they face voters in 2018.

Meanwhile, Republicans in Alabama have a clear choice: Vote for the Democrat, or vote for the pedophile. My guess is they’ll vote for the pedophile.

Press is host of “The Bill Press Show” on Free Speech TV and author of “Buyer’s Remorse: How Obama Let Progressives Down.”