Spot the difference. The allegations of sexual misconduct against Alabama politician Roy Moore, who is running for the US Senate, have revived interest in the allegations of sexual misconduct made against Donald Trump.
Multiple women have made allegations against the pair. How different has Moore’s response been from Trump’s? And has the Republican party’s reaction been consistent?
Roy Moore
The accusations
Leigh Corfman claims she was 14 when Roy Moore, then 32 and an assistant district attorney in Alabama, established an acquaintance with her family. Corfman said he drove her to his home in the woods, took off some of her clothes, kissed her, groped her and guided her hand to touch his genitals through his underwear.
Beverly Young Nelson claims Moore physically attacked her in a car when she was 16, grabbing her breasts and trying to force her head down on to his crotch.
Tina Johnson claims Moore groped her backside in 1991 when she was 28 and was consulting him when he was a lawyer in private practice. “He didn’t pinch it, he grabbed it,” she said.
Gena Richardson claims that when she was around 18 and working at the mall Moore, then around 30, persuaded her out on a date, but then kissed her so “forcefully” that she became frightened.
A number of other women have also made accusations that Moore pursued them as teenagers and the local news site, Alabama.com, said locals had heard he was banned from a shopping mall because of his predatory behavior.
In his own words
“These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign,” Moore, 70, said in a written statement, published on 9 November.
The next day, he told Fox News’s Sean Hannity’s radio show: “I don’t know Ms Corfman from anybody. I never talked to her, never had any contact with her. The allegations of sexual misconduct with her are completely false. I believe they’re politically motivated. With regard to the other girls, you understand this is 40 years ago and, after my return from the military, I dated a lot of young ladies.”
On the campaign trial on 15 November, he said: “Why do you think I’m being harassed in the media, and people pushing forth allegations in the last 28 days of this election?”
What have Republicans said?
Senator John McCain: “The allegations against Roy Moore are deeply disturbing and disqualifying. He should immediately step aside.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders: “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. However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside.”
US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin: “If the allegations prove to be true, he should step down.”
Alabama state auditor Jim Ziegler: “There is nothing to see here. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.”
Donald Trump
The accusations
At least 24 women have also accused Trump of inappropriate sexual behavior in multiple incidents spanning the last 30 years.
They include: Jessica Leeds, who claimed in 2016 that Trump assailed her when she sat next to him on a flight around 1980, touching her breasts and trying to put his hands up her skirt, against her will. Jill Harth, who accused Trump in a 1997 lawsuit of attempted rape and in 2016 told the Guardian Trump relentlessly pursued her in 1992. Tasha Dixon, former Miss Arizona, was one of several women who complained about Trump coming into the women’s changing room backstage of the Miss USA contests, without permission or a knock on the door.
Trump bragged about groping women without their consent on a tape from the television show Access Hollywood in 2005, which surfaced in October 2016.
On the tape, when Trump sees the woman waiting to host a visit he is making, he says: “Whoa! I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful … I just start kissing them … I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
In his own words
In response to the Access Hollywood tape, Trump said it was “locker-room banter”. He said: “I said it. I was wrong, and I apologize. I’ve never said I’m a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that I’m not.”
To the other allegations, he said: “I don’t know those people … [Hillary] Clinton’s sleazy campaign started [it].”
He has also responded specifically to some of the women’s accusations. “The phony story in the failing New York Times is a TOTAL FABRICATION,” Trump tweeted about the interview with Jessica Leeds.
“None of this ever took place,” Trump said of the allegations by Rachel Crooks.
“You are a disgusting human being,” he told a New York Times reporter who asked him about the allegations. And through his lawyer, Michael Cohen, Trump denied the accusations made by Harth.
The White House has said its official position is that all the women are lying.
But Trump effectively confirmed the accounts from beauty pageant contestants in a 2005 interview with Howard Stern. “I’ll go backstage and everyone’s getting dressed, and no men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. You know, they’re standing there with no clothes and you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that,” Trump said.
What did Republicans say?
House of Representatives speaker Paul Ryan: “I am sickened by what I heard today. Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified. I hope Mr Trump treats this situation with the seriousness it deserves and works to demonstrate to the country that he has greater respect for women than this clip suggests.”
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell: “I strongly believe that Trump needs to apologize directly to women and girls everywhere, and take full responsibility for the utter lack of respect for women shown in his comments on that tape.”
Republican National Committee chairman and later Trump’s chief of staff Reince Priebus: “No woman should ever be described in these terms or talked about in this manner. Ever.”