Morning Joe pundits slam 'depraved' Republican defenses of Roy Moore
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Pundits on Friday's Morning Joe condemned a series of Republican responses to the allegations against Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore as "depraved." Four women have accused Moore of initiating inappropriate relationships with them when they were teenagers. One of the accusers said she was 14 when Moore, 32 at the time, approached her.
Things heat up at the 8:18 mark, when Morning Joe co-anchor Willie Geist reads Alabama Geneva County GOP chairman Riley Seibenhener's comment that "other than being with an underage person, he didn't really force himself ... I know that 14-year-olds don't make good decisions."
The panel lamented the state of politics. "Have the politics so corrupted people that the defense of the tribe supersedes a 14-year-old girl saying she was raped?" Geist asked. "Is that where we are?" Donny Deutsch brought up his own 14-year-old and asked, "What's happened to us?"
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In defending Moore, several Republicans emphasized the importance of winning Alabama's upcoming special election, to which Republican strategist Susan DelPercio asked, "How is it possible that we get to this stage where electing a Democrat is worse than electing a deviant?"
Watch the full clip below. Elianna Spitzer
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Elianna Spitzer is a rising junior at Brandeis University, majoring in Politics and American Studies. She is also a news editor and writer at The Brandeis Hoot. When she is not covering campus news, Elianna can be found arguing legal cases with her mock trial team.q
-
Democrats push for ICE accountabilityFeature U.S. citizens shot and violently detained by immigration agents testify at Capitol Hill hearing
-
The price of sporting gloryFeature The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics kicked off this week. Will Italy regret playing host?
-
Fulton County: A dress rehearsal for election theft?Feature Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is Trump's de facto ‘voter fraud’ czar
-
Japan’s Takaichi cements power with snap election winSpeed Read President Donald Trump congratulated the conservative prime minister
-
Trump sues IRS for $10B over tax record leaksSpeed Read The president is claiming ‘reputational and financial harm’ from leaks of his tax information between 2018 and 2020
-
Trump, Senate Democrats reach DHS funding dealSpeed Read The deal will fund most of the government through September and the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks
-
Fed holds rates steady, bucking Trump pressureSpeed Read The Federal Reserve voted to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged
-
Judge slams ICE violations amid growing backlashSpeed Read ‘ICE is not a law unto itself,’ said a federal judge after the agency violated at least 96 court orders
-
Rep. Ilhan Omar attacked with unknown liquidSpeed Read This ‘small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work’
-
Democrats pledge Noem impeachment if not firedSpeed Read Trump is publicly defending the Homeland Security secretary
-
The billionaires’ wealth tax: a catastrophe for California?Talking Point Peter Thiel and Larry Page preparing to change state residency
