The Republican Party resumed its financial support for Roy Moore on Monday evening as new evidence surfaced that the Alabama Senate candidate had a relationship with a minor.
Debbie Wesson Gibson told The Washington Post that she and Moore were romantically involved in the early 1980s, when the longtime Alabama judge and prosecutor was 34 and she was 17.
Gibson had previously offered a signed yearbook, with an inscription Gibson claims was written by Moore, as proof that they were acquainted.
She says she’s since discovered a high school graduation card he penned to her.
The corroborating document emerged hours after President Donald Trump called Moore to give him total backing in the Dec. 12 special election. Trump told Moore, ‘Go get ’em Roy,’ according to the Senate candidate.
Debbie Wesson Gibson(present picture left) claims she and Moore were romantically involved back in the early 1980
Evidence that the two were acquainted came in the form of a signed yearbook she produced for The Washington Post (pictured Nov. 27, 2017)
Senators have continued to withhold their support for Moore, despite Trump leading the way. If Moore is elected next week, an ethics investigation is certain to ensue.
‘Happy graduation Debbie,’ the inscription, written in slanted handwriting, reads. ‘I wanted to give you this card myself. I know that you’ll be a success in anything you do. Roy.’
The Washington Post last month published a shocking report claiming that Moore had made inappropriate sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl while he was an assistant district attorney during the 1970s.
The Post also interviewed four other women who claimed the Alabama Senate nominee pursued a sexual relationship with them while they were still teenagers.
Soon after the allegations went public, four other women, including Gibson, stepped forward to accuse Moore of pursuing them when they were teenagers.
Moore has vehemently denied the allegations, blaming an orchestrated media effort of trying to take down his campaign.
Gibson told the Post that she and Moore did not try to hide their courtship, started back in the early 1980s, and even considered it a ‘badge of honor.’
Roy Moore is accused of pursuing numerous sexual relationships with teenage girls back when he was in his 30s
The 54-year-old said, however, that she began having second thoughts about their relationship in light of the recent allegations against the former Alabama Supreme Court Judge.
The Moore campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Gibson said that she has rejected dozens of media requests for an interview in the wake of the Roy Moore scandal, telling the Post that she has received numerous death threats after coming forward last month.
Despite the accusations, President Donald Trump, who has denied a litany of sexual assault allegations himself, endorsed Moore’s candidacy for The US Senate on Sunday
Gibson, a registered Republican who now lives in Dayton Beach, Florida, said that after another woman, Beverly Young Nelson, came forward with allegations during a televised press conference along with a yearbook signed by Moore, was she reminded of her own memento.
‘I just couldn’t imagine him doing something like that,’ Gibson said. ‘And then when I saw the interview from Beverly, and I saw his handwriting in her yearbook, my heart just sank. And when I saw what I knew to be Roy Moore’s handwriting, I just began to sob openly.’
Despite the accusations, President Donald Trump, who has denied a litany of sexual assault allegations himself, endorsed Moore’s candidacy for the US Senate on Monday.
In a statement, a White House spokesman said that the president ‘had a positive call with Judge Roy Moore… during which they discussed the state of the Alabama Senate race and the President endorsed Judge Moore’s campaign.’
Kayla Moore, the Republican candidate’s wife, wrote on Facebook that Trump had called her husband, forcing the White House to answer questions about it.
‘Judge Moore just got off the phone with President Trump – we have his full support! Thank you Mr. President! Let’s MAGA!’ Mrs. Moore wrote.
Her husband said in a tweet that Trump told him, ‘Go get ’em, Roy!’
‘I look forward to fighting alongside the President to #MAGA!’ he said.
President Donald Trump endorsed Roy Moore, the Alabama Republican accused of sexually harassing and assaulting teens, in a Monday morning tweet
The tax cut vote appeared to change Trump’s mind about Moore, who has been accused of inappropriate conduct with minors when he was in his ’30s
The White House said Monday that Trump called Moore to endorse him. Moore says the president told him, ‘Go get ’em, Roy!’
The endorsement was a stunning reversal of White House policy on Moore amid elevated fears within the West Wing that a Republican loss in the special election could stymie the president’s agenda.
The timing of Mrs. Moore’s post suggests that Trump placed the call from Air Force One as he flew to Utah for a mid-afternoon speech. That was hours after he tweeted a surprise endorsement.
Trump hinged his support for the U.S. Senate candidate on the weekend’s tax cut vote, when legislation advanced in the upper chamber with a one-vote majority in the Senate and no votes from Democrats.
‘Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive Tax Cuts is why we need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama,’ Trump said. ‘We need his vote on stopping crime, illegal immigration, Border Wall, Military, Pro Life, V.A., Judges 2nd Amendment and more. No to Jones, a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet!’
Moore tweeted his immediate thanks, using a favorite campaign slogan of Trump’s.
He wrote that he ‘can’t wait to help’ Trump ‘#DrainTheSwamp.’
The president had mulled an appearance with Moore in Alabama before the Dec. 12 special election to replace Jeff Sessions. The White House put the kibosh on it last week, as it attempted to put a buffer between the controversial Republican candidate and the president.
Moore’s wife Kayla wrote Monday morning on Facebook that the president had called her husband to endorse him
The timing of the message from Mrs. Moore (shown at right) put the call during the time when Trump was aboard Air Force One en route to Utah
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a news conference that the president’s schedule ‘doesn’t permit him doing anything between now and Election Day’ a week ago on Monday.
Instead, the White House engineered a presidential trip to the Florida panhandle on Friday that just happens to put the president within a major media market across the border. The move signaled how the White House both wanted Moore to prevail but also sought to keep a measure of distance.
Trump had walked a fine line between backing Moore and acknowledging that the allegations against him were troubling.
He signaled to reporters just before Thanksgiving, as he left the White House for his Florida property, that he was conflicted about Moore.
‘Look, he denies it,’ Trump said of the accusations. ‘He totally denies it. He says it didn’t happen. And, you know, you have to listen to him also. You’re talking about, he said 40 years ago this did not happen.’
The president did not endorse Moore in his exchange with reporters, although his comments were seen as a major boost to him.
The president was put in a difficult position in part because a raft of women accuse him of past misconduct
‘I can tell you one thing for sure: We don’t need a liberal person in there, a Democrat — [Doug]Jones,’ he said of Moore’s general election opponent. ‘I’ve looked at his record. It’s terrible on crime. It’s terrible on the border. It’s terrible on the military.
‘I can tell you for a fact, we do not need somebody that’s going to be bad on crime, bad on borders, bad with the military, bad for the Second Amendment.’
The tax cut vote appeared to change Trump’s calculus on Moore, who has been accused of inappropriate conduct with minors when he was in his ’30s.
Trump endorsed the former Alabama Supreme Court judge as he prepared to leave the White House for Utah.
Republicans have a thin majority of 52 votes in the U.S. Senate. Their caucus currently includes appointed-Alabama Republican Luther Strange. If Moore is unsuccessful in winning next week’s election, Republicans will have a single-vote advantage over Democrats.
The president’s late reversal signals the importance the White House places on the Alabama Senate seat.
Polls show Moore and Jones running neck and neck. A defeat in Alabama would carry long-term implications, while also likely depriving the GOP of a final vote on the controversial tax cut measure – a version of which cleared the Senate in the early hours of Saturday morning by just one senator.
In an earlier sign of ambiguity, Trump’s former chief White House strategist, Steve Bannon, was an early backer of Moore and planned his own events to support him.
Bannon and Trump were technically at odds in the primary, when the president backed the more mainstream Republican, Strange, who received strong backing from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well.
Strange ultimately fell to Moore, even though Trump appeared at a rally with him.
The president’s explicit backing for Moore in the general election comes as other Republican leaders called for him to get out of the race and desperately sought a way to try to stop him while keeping the seat in GOP hands through a write-in campaign or other means.
McConnell said Moore should ‘step aside’ after the first tranche of accusers came forward in a Washington Post report.
Trump campaigned for ‘Big Luther’ Sen. Luther Strange in Alabama, but now is embracing Roy Moore, who is accused of sexually touching teenagers
On Sunday, McConnell told ABC’s ‘This Week’ the Senate Ethics Committee would have to consider complaints against Moore.
‘I think we’re going to let the people of Alabama decide a week from Tuesday who they want to send to the Senate, and then we’ll address the matter appropriately,’ he said.
Moore is accused of making advances on teenagers when he was an Alabama prosecutor, and one woman, Leigh Corfman, says Moore sexually touched her at his home when she was just 14. Moore denies the charges and he and his team have tried to dispute elements of the women’s stories.