Ivanka Trump has weighed in on the allegations of sexual assault and misconduct against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, claiming that she believes the accounts of the women who have come forward.
“There’s a special place in hell for people who prey on children,” Trump told the Associated Press Wednesday in an interview. “I’ve yet to see a valid explanation and I have no reason to doubt the victims’ accounts.”
In the last week, six women have come forward alleging that Moore pursued them romantically when they were teenagers and he was in his thirties. Four of the women spoke on the record to the Washington Post in a November 9 article.
One of the women, Leigh Corfman, said she was just 14 when she met Moore outside a courthouse before a child custody hearing. They began seeing each other before he initiated sexual contact. Another woman, Gloria Thacker Deason, alleged that Moore had taken her on dates and given her wine when she was underage. On November 13, a fifth woman, Beverly Young Nelson, alleged that Moore had assaulted her when she was sixteen, locking her in a car with him, forcing her head toward his crotch and trying to pull her shirt off.
On Wednesday, yet another woman came forward, telling AL.com that Moore groped her in 1991.
Moore has dismissed these allegations, claiming he never heard of Corfman and Young, although he did acknowledge knowing Deason and another woman who came forward to the Post, Debbie Wesson Gibson.
But the allegations have drawn swift condemnation from Republican Senators and party leadership, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has said he believes the women and Moore should step aside. The Republican National Committee and Republican National Senatorial Committee also withdrew from their fundraising agreements with the candidate.
According to the AP, Trump did not say if Moore should step aside. Trump’s father, President Donald Trump, has not spoken publicly about the allegations but issued a statement while he was in Asia through his spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. President Trump has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by a number of women.
“Like most Americans, the President believes that 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,” the statement read.
