On the eve of the Alabama election that’s put the character of Republican candidate Roy Moore in the spotlight, his wife’s attempt to defend their family’s tolerance seriously backfired.
Kayla Moore was introducing her husband in Midland City, Alabama, on Monday night when she took aim at the media for reporting sexual misconduct allegations against him. The Senate candidate has been accused of molesting two women when they were minors and he was an attorney in his 30s, as well as pursuing and dating other minors.
Moore came under additional criticism last week after implying that Democrat-backing business magnate George Soros would go to hell for his Jewish faith. Moore has suggested that Soros is meddling in the Alabama Senate race.
Moore’s wife sought to address the backlash on Monday. “Fake news would tell you that we don’t care for Jews,” Kayla Moore said. “I tell you all this because I’ve seen it also; I just want to set the record straight while they’re here. One of our attorneys is a Jew. We have very close friends who are Jewish and rabbis, and we also fellowship with them.”
She similarly defended her husband against accusations of racism after his remarks that America was last great during slavery recirculated.
It’s a common misconception, but having friends (or lawyers) who are black or Jewish doesn’t exempt one from holding bigoted views. As HuffPost’s Zeba Blay writes, it “doesn’t mean that you don’t contribute to, perpetuate or, perhaps most importantly, benefit from racism and white supremacy.”
Twitter users were quick to mock Kayla Moore’s remark.