President Donald Trump has told close confidants in recent days that he firmly believes in Alabama Republican senate candidate Roy Moore’s innocence and has expressed no trepidation about endorsing the accused child molester, three sources close to the president told The Daily Beast.
Trump, who publicly endorsed Moore in a Monday morning tweet, had reportedly doubted the allegations since mid-November, but those doubts have been solidified in the last week — even as the White House has publicly maintained the accusations are credible but not disqualifying.
“This is not something he’s struggling with,” one senior White House official told The Daily Beast of Trump.
Trump has even begun to embrace Moore’s own defensive talking points in private conversations, telling a close friend and a senior administration official that Moore’s signature in one accuser’s high school year book is likely a forgery.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters “the president’s position hasn’t changed,” and said that he still finds the numerous allegations of sexual harassment of teens “concerning.”
The White House has maintained a hedged position since The Washington Post first reported in early November that Moore disrobed and groped a fourteen year old girl as a 32-year-old. After weeks of refusing to comment on the allegations, Trump offered comments sympathetic to Moore before heading to Mar-A-Lago for Thanksgiving, telling reporters he “denies it — he totally denies it. That’s all I can say.”
Trump again broke with the White House’s neutral strategy Monday morning, endorsing Moore with an enthusiastic tweet and a phone call from Air Force One, in which he reportedly told Moore “Go get ’em, Roy!”
Despite his private dismissal of Moore’s accusers, Trump sought to frame his endorsement in pragmatic political terms while addressing reporters Tuesday afternoon.
“We don’t want to have a liberal Democrat in Alabama, believe me,” he told reporters in the West Wing. “We want strong borders, we want stopping crime, we want to have the things that we represent and we certainly don’t want to have a liberal Democrat that’s controlled by Nancy Pelosi and controlled by Chuck Schumer, we don’t want to have that for Alabama.”
Moore dropped precipitously in the polls following the allegations but his numbers have climbed in recent days, tightening the race.
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