On CNN, Alabama political reporter compares Roy Moore's alleged sexual abuse to stealing a lawn mower

Brandon Moseley: If “Roy Moore had stolen a lawn mower when he was 21, that's bad,” but it's not a reason to “throw him off the ballot”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the November 11 edition of CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin:

BROOKE BALDWIN (HOST): Why don't you think these allegations are serious? 

BRANDON MOSELEY: They're 38-year-old allegations. This would be a misdemeanor at the time under the code of Alabama. The statute's been up since '86. If you go back and you don't elect anyone who's ever done anything wrong, we wouldn't have had Barack Obama. I think he did cocaine. Bill Clinton supposedly smoked marijuana. 

BALDWIN: OK. What?

MOSELEY: They weren't eliminated from the ballot.

[...]

BALDWIN: Just so everyone’s on the same page, sexual consent in Alabama is 16, and you acknowledge that sexual contact with a 14-year-old would have been illegal and would be considered sexual abuse by the books today. But Brandon, you know, you make this argument that there wasn’t a law against sexual abuse in Alabama back in the 70s. So I just want to – let me ask:Are you saying that, because there wouldn't have been a law, according to you, that that would have made it OK back then? 

MOSELEY: No, I'm not. I mean, if Roy Moore committed a sin, that's a sin, and that's not good. But we're not talking about an actual crime here under -- that's prosecutable in 2017. I don't think you throw out 35 years of a man's career and his reputation because of an unsubstantiated allegation from 1979 that can't be proven either way. 

BALDWIN: Brandon, she was -- she was 14 years of age, and I don't know how much digging you did or didn't do into the law in 1979, but we did, and we found Section 13A-667, we found that this was on the books going back to '77 and would have been considered sexual abuse in the second degree. Care to respond? 

MOSELEY: Which was a misdemeanor in Alabama if I'm correct.

BALDWIN: Does that make it OK?

MOSELEY: No, but again, if, you know, Roy Moore had stolen a lawn mower when he was 21, that's bad, but that's not a reason 50 years later to all of a sudden, you know, throw him off the ballot or let [Senate Majority Leader (R-KY)] Mitch McConnell pick the next senator of Alabama. 

BALDWIN: Sexual abuse, stealing a lawn mower, let's not even go there.

Previously:

CNN commentator Ed Martin attacks woman who reported that Roy Moore molested her as a child

Breitbart runs defense after women say Roy Moore made sexual advances while they were teenagers

There's a reason Roy Moore chose Sean Hannity to interview him