“Do You Believe This?â€
In private, Donald Trump reportedly expressed his annoyance that his daughter and top White House aid Ivanka Trump publicly denounced embattled Senate-hopeful Roy Moore.
Moore has been accused by at least nine women of various acts of inappropriate behavior, child sexual assault, and sexual assault including groping. Moore reportedly has a history of hitting on teenaged girls as young as 14, and many of his accusers have advised they were 16 to 18 when he pursued them.
“There’s a special place in hell for people who prey on children,†Ivanka Trump recently told the Associated Press. “I’ve yet to see a valid explanation and I have no reason to doubt the victims’ accounts.”
It’s that commentary which, according to The New York Times, annoyed the president. As the outlet reported Saturday:
As Mr. Moore has rejected calls to drop out even as more women have accused him of preying on them when they were teenagers, Republicans have given up any hope that he will fold his campaign. Mr. Trump has repeatedly told his aides that he does not believe Mr. Moore would ever quit.
What the president did not foresee was that the friction would reach inside his immediate family. He vented his annoyance when his daughter Ivanka castigated Mr. Moore by saying there was “a special place in hell for people who prey on children,†according to three staff members who heard his comments.
“Do you believe this?†Mr. Trump asked several aides in the Oval Office in the hours after Ms. Trump said that Mr. Moore should exit the race. Mr. Moore’s Democratic opponent in the Alabama race, Doug Jones, quickly turned her comments into a campaign ad.
This week, Donald Trump finally weighed in on the scandal, opting to defend Moore because the former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice “totally denies†the allegations. The president further asserted that “we don’t need a liberal person†to fill Alabama’s open Senate seat.
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