Breitbart tries to poke holes in Roy Moore accuser Leigh Corfman's story by interviewing her mom

(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for Senate in Alabama, has his defenders, such as Las Vegas Journal-Review columnist and talk radio host Wayne Allen Root, who called Moore "a Steve Bannon candidate for U.S. Senate" on Sunday and said he doubted the reports that he pursued and fondled teenage girls as young as 14 because Moore is "a man of principle and integrity," and "never in his three decades of public service has there ever been even a hint of scandal." (Moore was kicked off the Alabama Supreme Court twice, but whatever.) Bannon's Breitbart News does seem to be going to bat for Moore, though.

Breitbart published two articles on Sunday based on an interview Saturday with Nancy Wells, the 71-year-old mother of Leigh Corfman, the woman who told The Washington Post that Moore removed her clothes and touched her over her underwear when she was 14 and he a 32-year-old assistant district attorney.

In one article, Breitbart Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein says that Wells "contradicted a key detail of Corfman's story," namely that Corfman talked to Moore on "her phone in her bedroom." When Breitbart asked Wells if Corfman had her own phone in her bedroom, Wells said no, "but the phone in the house could get through to her easily." Wells also told Breitbart, if you read down far enough, that the Post's report is "truthful and it was researched very well."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

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.

In the other article, Klein says the Post "convinced" Corfman to go public with her story. "She was contacted by the reporter. That's why," Wells told Breitbart when asked why her daughter is speaking up now, decades later. "It wasn't done for politics, you know. ... It was done for personal reasons. And it wouldn't have been done if the reporters hadn't contacted my daughter." Moore denies the allegations, mostly.

Explore More

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.