On Monday, the set of “Morning Joe” erupted in fury over how some in the Republican party have attempted to defend Roy Moore, the Alabama senate candidate who’s under siege over allegations he engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior with a 14-year-old girl and other teenagers when he was in his 30s.
“It makes me sick to my stomach the way that people have responded to this. It really is so chilling,” said show regular Elise Jordan.
“These women have been playing this on auto-repeat every day of their lives. This one woman, the 14-year-old, she tried to commit suicide two years later,” she continued. “And then you have people saying, ‘If these allegations are true.’ Well, it made a big difference in that little girl’s life.”
The moment was precipitated by MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, who led the show in the absence of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinksi, and said that the four female accusers’ on-the-record accounts should serve as sufficient evidence.
“These stories are all we’re ever going to have. Four women with nothing to gain and everything to lose, telling their story in the Washington Post attached to their name,” said Wallace.
“That’s it, people. There’s not going to be something else,” she said. “There won’t be a trial. This is not a criminal situation. We don’t wait for a preponderance of facts, we don’t wait for more evidence. You either believe the women or you don’t.”
The Moore campaign has been in crisis since the charges were first published by the Washington Post last week.
Once looking at a comfortable victory, Moore has moved him into a dead heat with Democratic challenger Doug Jones in a state that is reliably Republican in its voting patterns. Republican leaders nationally have called for Moore to step aside, though the former judge has vowed to press on.