Is Fox News ditching Roy Moore?
Alexander Nazaryan
Posted with permission from Newsweek
On Friday night, Sean Hannity opened his prime time Fox News program by playing an audio recording of his interview, conducted on his radio show the day before, with former Alabama chief justice Roy S. Moore, now running for a Senate seat from that state. Hannity then turned to a panel of three pundits, asking them whether Moore sufficiently defended himself against the damning allegations of child molestation and sexual misconduct that surfaced in The Washington Post the day before.
“You ended his candidacy,” declared Geraldo Rivera, citing Moore’s inability to unequivocally say that he had never dated teenage girls when he was in his 20s and 30s, after he’d left the U.S. Army and turned to law. “I would urge Republicans to postpone the special election,” Rivera said.
Gregg Jarrett, a Fox News legal analyst, was no more kind. “I found his answers to be unconvincing and implausible, his entire story to be, in a word, unbelievable. Which means he’s lying.” Moore has called the allegations against him “fake news,” suggesting that The Washington Post was motivated by a political agenda.
Jarrett said Moore “should step aside.” (. . .)
"After my return from the military, I dated a lot of young ladies," Moore said.
In a particularly damning exchange, Hannity asked Moore if he’d had a habit of dating teenage girls. “Do you remember dating girls that young at that time?”
“Not generally, no,” Moore said. “If I did, I’m not going to dispute anything, but I don’t remember anything like that.”