#metoo (An Open Secret: Hollywood - Please Watch)

Martial Media, Culture and Other Arts Off Topic
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With all the news lately of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, etc., it’s absolutely amazing that THIS is flying so far under the radar in the mainstream media. Hollywood’d pedophilia problem is a subject that even all the people who are now speaking up about the Harvey Weinsteins of the world have been steering clear of. Yet what’s happening here is AT LEAST as bad as what Weinstein, Cosby, and countless others who target adult women have been and are doing. The dark side of the entertainment industry goes far deeper than only a few powerful men exploiting adult women. Until people stop seeing this as just a women’s issue, it will continue to proliferate and go unaddressed in the mainstream media.

When Barbara Walters criticized Corey Feldman for coming out about this problem, she was essentially trying to bury what he was revealing. Barbara Walters showed that she is part of the problem (and firmly ensconced into the ‘system’). Had he been a woman coming out about a Harvey Weinstein, she probably would have reacted differently, even if only to APPEAR more PC. If this issue of harassment/molestation in the entertainment industry is to be addressed, it needs to be addressed in its entirety.

//youtu.be/Lwi9Yt_D844

*Reposted vid, because original link was taken off of YouTube.

**Oh, look: it’s been taken off of YouTube again. Surprise, surprise. Well, if anyone is interested, rather than constantly reposting the documentary, check YouTube for it. It gets put up, gets removed, then pops up again.

Busted MMA fighters and fights
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//youtu.be/q70rA6dAJic

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I am surprised that ANYONE is surprised by how corrupt Hollywood is. cough Roman Polanski cough

What is actually moist shocking to me ( it isn’t really) is all these people coming out now.
They are NOT naming names ( which means the perpetrators are still doing this, right NOW).
Most of these women have been in positions of power for years now and COULD have done something sooner and one reels at the though ot HOW MANY other women have suffered because these women that COULD have done something sooner, did nothing, said nothing.

4

Politics is worse…

…only the interns aren’t as hot as up-and-coming actresses. :o

And then there’s Seagal.

5

IMO, with the exception of murder, there is nothing worse than pedophilia, including in the entertainment industry. Read up about what Judy Garland experienced in her career, including on the set of The Wizard of Oz. Even Shirley Temple had said that an MGM producer exposed himself to her in his office when she was still a child. Adult women still have a choice and a degree of personal power in pursuing a career in entertainment; a child doesn’t have that power or choice.

In a way, I can understand why some would not come forward or name names. I can imagine that some of the actors/actresses/singers, etc., who reportedly died from ODing or ‘suicide’ may have been ‘silenced’ by powerful people. Or their lives could have otherwise been made a living hell. Personally, I would have quit and walked away from such a career forever if that had ever happened to me, but then again, it didn’t and I’m not in that position. Hollywood has a habit of standing by its molesters (like Polanski), except in cases where the overwhelming preponderance of evidence becomes too much, as in Weinstein’s case. There is indeed safety in numbers.

6

Greetings,

Thank you, Jimbo, for stepping forward with this thread.

Sex abuse and its varied manifestations exist big time in this country.

I get the feeling that Corey Feldman is getting bankrolled by the people who abused him to not name names. I watched “An Open Secret” with so many different arm postures. It was that uncomfortable to watch. The biggest disappointment was the judge. It was like she did not understand what a precedent is and how important it is for a precedent to be established for situations like those shared to receive proper justice. She just bailed out on those children. It was sad.

mickey

7

Hi, mickey. I don’t know if Corey Feldman is being bankrolled (I personally don’t think he is), but I do think he’s being smart about it. At this point, he’s a David going against a VERY big Goliath. Unlike the harassment/abuse of women, pedophilia is still a big no-no subject that nobody wants to deal with. Feldman is probably still around because he hasn’t named names.

As far as the Harvey Weinstein thing, I don’t believe Meryl Streep when she says she was unaware of Weinstein’s reputation around women. She’s a big-time (and long-time) A-lister. You don’t get to that level in Hollywood without some awareness of what’s going on in your industry, especially with a bigwig like Weinstein, even if he hadn’t done anything to her. The Hollywood entertainment industry is actually a small community.

Here’s something from today. Although Bill O’Reilly has abused women, not children (as far as anyone knows), in his own words alone he shows that he’s a perfect example of an abusive psychopath:

//youtu.be/DBz6_eZ167I

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Greetings Jimbo,

O’Reilly seems to speak from the perspective of being an abusee who later became an abuser. He seems to speak of being an abuser to his children. That went over the reporters’ heads because they were not looking for that.

mickey

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[QUOTE=mickey;1305593]Greetings Jimbo,

O’Reilly seems to speak from the perspective of being an abusee who later became an abuser. He seems to speak of being an abuser to his children. That went over the reporters’ heads because they were not looking for that.

mickey[/QUOTE]

Hi, mickey. I don’t know if O’Reilly was ever abused or not (and frankly don’t care), but as far as his reference to his kids, it seems to me he means that his being outed as a sexual harasser has had a negative effect on his kids (perhaps being bullied or ostracized at school because of who their dad is, or seeing their dad in a negative light). In other words, everything negative that’s happening in his (and his family’s) life as a result of his abusing women is everyone else’s (including God’s) fault. It’s a pathetic attempt to throw guilt onto his victims and anyone else who isn’t on his side. Typical psychopath/sociopath; never takes responsibility for his actions that result in negativity for himself.

He says he had no protection. If anything, he’s had too much protection. Like all these abusers in power, up 'til recently he’s been like Teflon. I always knew that O’Reilly was a scumbag, but I never thought he would ever be ousted from his position.

10

Cringeworthy pic

Heres Steven Seagal putting his hand on 16-year-old Katherine Heigls breast
In News by Drew Salisbury / October 24, 2017

Theres no shortage of creeps in Hollywood, as the last few weeks have made abundantly clear (if you werent already well aware, that is). While trying to crown the worst abuser in Tinseltown would be an endeavor akin to identifying the smelliest turd floating around in a Porta John, audio recordings uncovered Monday by the Daily Mail (and years of documented gross behavior) make a strong case for samurai-cum-******* Steven Seagal.

While it has circulated for some time and was even pointed out in an April 2017 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a reader brought our attention to the above photo of Seagal with a then-barely 16-year-old Katherine Heigl promoting Under Siege 2.

Heigl turned 16 while filming the movie, which was also her big-screen debut. Heres how she described the 43-year-old Seagals behavior on the set to Kimmel (emphasis ours):

[QUOTE]
The last day of shooting, and again, I had just turned 16 on this movie. And he said, You know Katie, I got girlfriends your age. And I said, Isnt that illegal? And he said, They dont seem to mind. And I said, Mom! Im not making that up.

While Heigl seemed to laugh off the incident years later (or perhaps more accurately, as she tellingly put it, block it out), its wild to think that this was (and continues to be!) considered acceptable behavior. Seagal was photographed putting his hand a teenage girls breast in 1995, and I can guarantee you not a single word was probably written about it. Even just months ago, Kimmel was mining it for laughs. Thats pretty ****ed up!

Heigl told Kimmel despite everything she still loved Seagal a performance worthy of an Emmy if I ever saw one, and very possibly driven by anxiety about hurting her career. It wouldnt be the first time talking about sexism and misogyny in the industry got her branded as difficult.

//youtu.be/tsvoMGGUrMU

[screenshot: Jimmy Kimmel Live!][/QUOTE]

Seagal & Hollywood’s Open Secret

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Thanks, Gene, I hadn’t known about that. I guess Seagal, in addition to abusing women, is a pedophile.

Here’s something I now remember from the Oscars a few years ago, but had forgotten, because back then I was only vaguely aware of the name ‘Harvey Weinstein’ in association with The Weinstein Company and their Dragon Dynasty DVDs, like their Shaw Brothers releases. It turns out that MacFarlane’s ‘joke’ was actually meant as a very real jab at Weinstein. That the celebrity audience laughed as they did shows that Weinstein’s misbehavior towards women was well-known among Hollywood’s elite.

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Kevin Spacey…

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If this could happen to an adult Terry Crews, it could happen to anybody.

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It’s now clear that the terrible Rush Hour franchise was far from director Brett Ratner’s worst sin. The video is concise, but the article I linked right below goes into more accounts with much more detail.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-brett-ratner-allegations-20171101-htmlstory.html

//youtu.be/a8osDSn5ncA

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Julianna Margulies

More are coming forward against Seagal. Wonder when legal action might commence…if ever…:o

Julianna Margulies Recalls “Horrific” Hotel Room Meeting With Steven Seagal
8:52 AM PDT 11/4/2017 by Meena Jang


Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images
Julianna Margulies

The ‘Good Wife’ actress shared she also drew the ire of Harvey Weinstein when she refused to enter his hotel suite alone after learning from her experience with Seagal.

Julianna Margulies on Friday morning spoke candidly about her harrowing experience with Steven Seagal during a visit to Sirius XM’s Just Jenny.

Speaking to host Jenny Hutt, the former Good Wife star revealed she narrowly escaped a hotel room meeting with Seagal, who has been accused of sexual harassment by multiple women, before things could take a turn for the worse. Margulies, then 23 years old, said she was persuaded to meet the actor late at night by a female casting director who insisted he wanted to go over a scene.

“I lived in Brooklyn, and I said, ‘Oh, I don’t do that. I don’t travel. I don’t have money for a cab.’ And I didn’t,” Margulies recalled. “And she says, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll reimburse you.’”

The actress claims Seagal was armed with a gun when she arrived.

“I got to the hotel around 10:40, and she [the casting director] wasn’t there. And he was alone and he made sure that I saw his gun, which I had never seen a gun in real life,” Margulies continued. “I got out of there unscathed. I never was raped, and I never was harmed. I don’t know how I got out of that hotel room.”

Margulies told Hutt she felt she had been “set up” by the casting director, and learned from the experience that she should never go into private meetings alone.

The actress added, “Because of my experience with Steven Seagal in that room, which was horrific, I refused to meet Harvey Weinstein in his hotel room when another woman brought me, saying, ‘You will absolutely get [a] screen test.’”

On a separate occasion, Margulies claimed the film mogul, whose accusers now total over 70, attempted to lure her to his suite at the Peninsula Beverly Hills through a female assistant to discuss a film role she had auditioned for.

“She said, ‘I’m going to drop you off at the Peninsula,’ and I said, ‘I’m not going up there alone.’ I saw how she started to sweat. She was like, ‘Don’t be silly, I’m just going to drop you off. It’s going to be fine.’ And I said, 'Nope, then I’m going home,”" the actress recalled.

When the assistant reluctantly agreed to escort Margulies up to Weinstein’s room, he opened the door in a bathrobe.

“I could see that there were candles lit in the room, and there was a dinner for two. And I saw him stare at her, daggers. And I turned to see what she had done to deserve that, and I caught her in a shrug, like, ‘What could I do?’” said the actress. “He looked at me, furious, and he took the door and he said, ‘Just wanted to say, “great audition.”’ And he slammed the door. Of course, I didn’t get the part.”

Margulies admitted that if she hadn’t experienced that initial meeting with Seagal and didn’t have an established career at the time, “I would’ve gone in, absolutely.”

The actress slammed the notion of victim-shaming, saying, “It’s not to be shrugged off.”

Turning the focus to women who enable men to abuse their power, Margulies noted, “It’s not always the men that are awful. We have to start holding these people accountable.”

Seagal & Hollywood’s Open Secret

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Will Seagal get blackballed like Weinstein/Spacey/et.al.? Or does he even rate?

Maybe they’ll replace Seagal with Christopher Plummer for China Salesman. Too soon? :o

Portia de Rossi Claims Steven Seagal Exposed Himself to Her in Private Audition
4:33 PM PST 11/8/2017 by Patrick Shanley


Getty Images
Portia de Rossi

The actress on Wednesday wrote about the incident on her personal Twitter account.

Portia de Rossi has accused Steven Seagal of exposing himself to her.

The actress on Wednesday posted to her personal Twitter account that, while auditioning for a role in a film starring Seagal, the actor “told me how important it was to have chemistry off-screen as he sat me down and unzipped his leather pants.”

De Rossi then said that she called her agent who was “unfazed” and replied, "Well, I didn’t know if he was your type.”

Seagal has previously been accused of misconduct and harassment, including allegations by: former actress and Inside Edition correspondent Lisa Guerrero, who claims the actor invited her to audition in his private home and conducted the audition in a silk kimono; actress Rae Dawn Chong, who claims that sometime in 1989-90, she was sent by her agent to Seagal’s hotel for a 9:30 p.m. audition, during which he exposed himself; and Juliana Margulies, who similarly claims she met with the actor in a private room where he harassed her and was armed with a gun.

A request for comment from de Rossi was not immediately returned.

After de Rossi spoke out, wife Ellen DeGeneres took to Twitter to say, “I’m proud of my wife.”

Seagal & Hollywood’s Open Secret

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Melanie Kohler

More on Ratner

Brett Ratner Accuser Who Deleted Facebook Post Speaks Out
8:05 AM PST 11/8/2017 by Jackie Strause


Courtesy of ABC News
Melanie Kohler on ‘GMA’

“We’re here to send a very strong message that [the lawsuit] is not going to stop Melanie from speaking,” says a lawyer for Melanie Kohler, whom Ratner is suing over a social media post claiming he raped her.

Melanie Kohler says she is willing to tell her story about Brett Ratner in court if it comes to that.

Speaking on Good Morning America, the Hawaii native who had accused the filmmaker of rape in a since-deleted Facebook post said, “If I have to risk my life and what I’ve worked so hard for in my life in Hawaii to be the voice that helps other women come forward, then I am prepared to do that.”

More than a week before the Los Angeles Times published an explosive report from six women, including actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, claiming they were sexually assaulted or harassed by Ratner, Kohler claimed in an Oct. 20 Facebook post that the Hollywood director-producer “was a rapist on at least one night in Hollywood about 12 years ago” and “preyed on me as a drunk girl [and] forced himself upon me.” She later deleted the post.

During a Wednesday sit-down with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, where she was accompanied by her lawyer, Kohler explained why.

“I posted on Facebook and was just starting to feel healing about it all, and about an hour and a half after I posted, my cell phone rang,” she said. Ratner’s lawyer, Marty Singer, told her that if she didn’t remove the post, he had authorization from Ratner to sue her for defamation, she said. “I was scared and shocked.”

Correcting what she had said in her initial post about not telling anyone about the alleged incident, Kohler said her best friend did recall her relaying the experience. “It’s so embarrassing. It’s so humiliating. It’s not something that you ever want to relive again and it just felt like there was nothing that I could do,” she explained. “I didn’t think the police could help me. I didn’t know if anyone would be willing to go up against someone so powerful and it just was easier for me to not relive it.”

Ratner then filed a complaint in Hawaii federal court denying Kohler’s allegations and categorizing the social media post as libel per se. His lawyer, Eric Seitz, argued that the statements are entirely false, fabricated and fictional and that Kohler published them maliciously. Ratner claims to have suffered emotional distress, worry, anger and anxiety and that his personal and professional reputations have been injured.

Kohler’s lawyer said she felt the lawsuit was not about her client, but was instead filed by Singer and Ratner to “send a message to other women” and deter them from speaking out. “We’re here to send a very strong message that it’s not going to stop Melanie from speaking and it’s not going to stop other women from speaking,” said attorney Robbie Kaplan, who added that they are prepared to call “at least three dozen witnesses” and have the resources to fight back if the case proceeds. Amy Kaufman, the co-writer of the L.A. Times report, said on Twitter that the paper is investigating claims from over 45 women.

Speaking out now because she “can’t get through the day without being reminded of it,” Kohler said she wants women to feel comfortable speaking out about a person who is “more powerful than you, has more money than you and when everything feels stacked against you.”

In response to the segment, Singer told GMA in a statement, “Brett Ratner vehemently denies the outrageous derogatory allegations that have been reported about him, and we are confident that his name will be cleared once the current media frenzy dies down and people can objectively evaluate the nature of these claims.”

In response to Kaplan specifically, Singer added, “It is nonsense that the defamation lawsuit filed against Ms. Kohler is a tactic of ‘trying to silence women.’ No such thing is occurring.”

In light of the allegations that have come to light against Ratner, Warner Bros., where Ratner had a first-look deal, severed ties with the producer.

Natasha Henstridge details day Brett Ratner allegedly sexually assaulted her
Fox News


Natasha Henstridge spoke out about director Brett Ratner allegedly sexually assaulting her back in the 1990’s. (Reuters)

Natasha Henstridge, who was one of the women named in the Los Angeles Times’ exposé regarding Brett Ratner’s alleged sexual misconduct, detailed the day the director reportedly assaulted her.

Henstridge, 43, told the Los Angeles Times Ratner forced her to give him oral sex when she 19 years old in the early 1990s.

Henstridge said she was trying to leave his apartment in Manhattan when he blocked her from going. “The Whole Nine Yards” actress said Ratner began to masturbate and then forced her to perform oral sex on him.

“He strong-armed me in a real way. He physically forced himself on me,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “At some point, I gave in and he did his thing.”

Henstridge told the Daily News the incident occurred near where she lived at the time in New York City.

"I remember I ran home crying, so it was just within a few blocks,” she told the Daily News.


Brett Ratner has been accused of sexual misconduct by six women. (Reuters)

Henstridge said the incident left her feeling “helpless, sad and responsible.”

“At the time it happened, I was a model, living in that world where there was an emphasis on sex appeal and beauty, and as a kid, part of me felt I was deserving of what happened,” she said.

The actress said she did not consider going to police and instead, pushed the alleged assault to the back of her mind.

The “Species” actress said she was afraid to reveal her experience with Ratner at first but described the article’s release as “cathartic.”

“For weeks, I struggled with speaking up. Then at one point, I thought (the article) wasn’t going to come out because of legal pressure. And as afraid as I was, I then felt more afraid it wouldn’t publish. So I’m feeling relieved in that way,” Henstridge said.


Olivia Munn claimed Brett Ratner sexually harassed her. (AP)

“I’m sure I will get to that place of peace eventually,” she said. “I’m so grateful (to the other accusers). It helps you realize you’re not the only one. And there is power in numbers.”

Other women who came out to accuse Ratner of sexual misconduct were actresses Olivia Munn, Jamie Ray Newman, Katharine Towne, Jorina King and model Eri Sasaki.

Ratner’s lawyer, Marty Singer, said the “Rush Hour” director “categorically disputed” the allegations made by the women.

“I have represented Mr. Ratner for two decades, and no woman has ever made a claim against him for sexual misconduct or sexual harassment,” Singer told the Los Angeles Times. “Furthermore, no woman has ever requested or received any financial settlement from my client.”

Following the allegations, Ratner sued a woman who claimed he raped her and “stepped away” from Warner Bros.

“In light of the allegations being made, I am choosing to personally step away from all Warner Bros.- related activities,” Ratner said in a statement. “I don’t want to have any possible negative impact to the studio until these personal issues are resolved.”

I hope he’s out for Rush Hour 4…if that even ever happens.

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The latest from Corey Feldman:

//youtu.be/SFvSmyed0eY

I’ve noticed there are still some people who believe that this is all just some big money-making scheme by Feldman. That shows how utterly stupid some people are. NOBODY, especially a guy, says they were molested — for as many years as Feldman has been putting the word out about it — as a profit-making scheme. It’s also not so easy to come out and name names, especially the names of powerful men, as many people seem to think it is. There are not only legalities involved, but Feldman’s own personal safety as well. He’s been talking about Hollywood pedophilia FOR DECADES and almost nobody was listening.

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The next step

Like I said, politics is worse. Only politicians are generally better at defending themselves against allegations because that’s what they do.

Sex Allegations Against Roy Moore Send Republicans Reeling
By RICHARD FAUSSET, JONATHAN MARTIN and CAMPBELL ROBERTSONNOV. 9, 2017


Roy S. Moore, the Republican candidate for United States Senator in Alabama, was accused of making sexual or romantic overtures to teenagers. Credit Kevin D. Liles for The New York Times

ATLANTA Republicans in Washington seemed near panic Thursday in the light of a news report in which four women said Roy S. Moore, the Republican nominee for a United States Senate seat in Alabama and an evangelical Christian, had made sexual or romantic overtures to them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader, said Mr. Moore should step aside ahead of the Dec. 12 special election if the allegations were true.

But in Alabama, the fallout was uncertain for a candidate who is considered a hero in some circles for his conservative cultural stances. Mr. Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, was twice removed from that office for his positions on gay marriage and a Ten Commandments display. On Thursday, he strenuously denied the allegations the women made about him in on-the-record interviews included in the report, published by The Washington Post.

And it was clear that many in his conservative base were in no mood to desert him in a race for a Senate seat Republicans consider crucial to maintaining their majority in the upper chamber.

John Skipper, 66, a former chair of the Mobile County Republican Party, declared the allegations total contrived media garbage. Mr. Skipper said that he would still support the candidate and that he figured most of the Alabama Republicans he knew would probably do the same.

Most of them will not be shocked, he said, and will rather be expecting these shenanigans being pulled by the Democrats as standard operating procedure.

Whether Mr. Skippers prediction proves true remains to be seen. But the report unquestionably introduced new waves of uncertainty and turmoil into a race for the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, the attorney general.

The women cited in The Washington Post article said that Mr. Moore had pursued them in the 1970s and 1980s when he was a lawyer in his early 30s.

Mr. Moore was defiant, denying the charges and attacking the news media.

These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and The Washington Post on this campaign, he said in a statement. He later attributed the news to The Obama-Clinton Machines liberal media lap dogs.

[QUOTE] Judge Roy Moore @MooreSenate
The Obama-Clinton Machines liberal media lapdogs just launched the most vicious and nasty round of attacks against me Ive EVER faced!

We are are in the midst of a spiritual battle with those who want to silence our message. (1/4) #ALSen
3:46 PM - Nov 9, 2017
9,815 9,815 Replies 7,314 7,314 Retweets 12,926 12,926 likes
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Brett Doster, an adviser to Mr. Moore, said the candidate would absolutely not drop out of the race, calling the charges a fabricated November surprise.

Others in Alabama shrugged at the allegations. Theres nothing to see here, said Jim Zeigler, the state auditor and a longtime supporter of Mr. Moore. Single man, early 30s, never been married, dating teenage girls. Never been married and he liked younger girls. According to The Washington Post account he never had sexual intercourse with any of them.

But Mr. Moores candidacy appears to be in grave danger. Senate Republicans moved en masse to distance themselves from their nominee almost as soon as the news article was posted.

A statement from Vice President Mike Pence said: The Vice President found the allegations in the story disturbing and believes, if true, this would disqualify anyone from serving in office.

That statement was repeated by numerous Republicans, including the president who was traveling in Asia.

Like most Americans the president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a persons life, Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, said in statement from Danang, Vietnam, where the president is attending an economic summit meeting. However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside.

If these allegations are true, his candidacy is not sustainable, said Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Republican. Mr. Cornyn said he wanted to know more before withdrawing his endorsement of Mr. Moore.
[/QUOTE] continued next post

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Continued from previous post

[QUOTE] John McCain @SenJohnMcCain
The allegations against Roy Moore are deeply disturbing and disqualifying. He should immediately step aside and allow the people of Alabama to elect a candidate they can be proud of.
11:44 AM - Nov 9, 2017
16,877 16,877 Replies 34,977 34,977 Retweets 117,227 117,227 likes
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The party, already reeling from the election losses they suffered on Tuesday, is defending a two-seat majority in the Senate and faces a handful of difficult elections next year.

Mr. Moore’s candidacy had already worried party leaders who had embraced Mr. Moore despite his long record of incendiary comments about gays, Muslims and African-Americans.

Alabama election law indicates, with little ambiguity, that the deadline has passed for candidates to be replaced on the ballot. The state election code says a candidate who wishes to withdraw from a race must do so 76 days before Election Day. The Alabama vote is in little more than a month.

“It’s too late to substitute a candidate,” said John Merrill, the Alabama secretary of state, a Republican. “Judge Moore will be the candidate on the ballot with this election cycle remaining on the schedule it’s currently on.”

Republican lawyers and strategists in Washington were engaged in a furious search on Thursday for creative ways around that restriction, seeking a loophole that would allow the party’s leadership in the state to anoint a new candidate. The prospect of a write-in candidacy, for a third candidate, was also under consideration, according to party aides.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, who ran her own successful write-in campaign in 2010, said: “If in fact what I just read is true, he needs to get out of this race immediately. I think it’s pretty clear cut.”

She called for Senator Luther Strange, who was appointed to fill Mr. Sessions’s seat but lost to Mr. Moore in a bitterly contested Republican runoff in September, to run as a write-in.

One of the women, Leigh Corfman, told The Washington Post that she was 14 when Mr. Moore, 32 at the time, drove her to his home in Gadsden, Ala. He took off her shirt and touched her bra and underwear while also guiding her hand over his pants, Ms. Corfman told The Post.

“I wanted it over with — I wanted out,” she told the newspaper.

CNN reported that it had spoken with Ms. Corfman’s stepfather, who said the family “stands by” what was reported in The Post.

Republican leaders are in a politically perilous situation, saddled with an embattled nominee unwilling to step aside in one of the country’s most conservative states. The charges reignited hostilities between Mr. McConnell’s political allies, who poured millions of dollars into the campaign to stop Mr. Moore, and President Trump’s former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who rallied support for the former justice.

“This is what happens when you let reckless, incompetent idiots like Steve Bannon go out and recruit candidates who have absolutely no business running for the U.S. Senate,” said Josh Holmes, a former McConnell aide.

Mr. Bannon did not immediately reply to text messages or phone calls, but Breitbart posted an article with Mr. Moore’s statement shortly before The Post published its report.

Steven Law, the head of a McConnell-aligned “super PAC” that led an onslaught against Mr. Moore in the Republican runoff, did not wait for a guilty verdict before he excoriated Breitbart for “defending ‘consensual’ sex between a 32-year-old and a 16-year-old.”

Private polling by both parties has shown that while Mr. Moore retains a passionate following among conservatives, he is a deeply divisive figure among more moderate Republicans, and some party officials now worry that the charges will convince moderates to stay home or vote for the Democratic candidate, Doug Jones, a former United States attorney.

The Jones campaign said in a statement that “Roy Moore needs to answer these serious charges.”

Cleveland Poole, the chairman of the Republican Party in rural Butler County, said those most likely to defect were not ardent Moore supporters but voters who already have doubts. “They are going to be put off by it and might well stay home,” he said.

In a statement, Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, called the allegations “deeply disturbing,” and said she would withhold judgment until “we know the facts.” Senator Richard Shelby, the dean of the state’s congressional delegation, told reporters in Washington that if the charges were accurate “he wouldn’t belong in the Senate.”

Mr. Doster, the adviser to Mr. Moore, said the candidate’s campaign chairman, Bill Armistead, had talked to members of Alabama’s congressional delegation after the report broke. “Everybody has been supportive,” Mr. Doster said.

But a Republican familiar with the conversation said the House members on the call had told Mr. Armistead it was imperative that they aggressively respond to the article or risk losing support from the party’s elected officials.

Randy Brinson, president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, said he expected voters would mostly give Mr. Moore the benefit of the doubt.

“Until I see something different, I would support Roy Moore because of what he says he’s going to do and who he is as a person,” Mr. Brinson said.

Mr. Zeigler said the account given by Ms. Corfman was “the only part that is concerning.” As Mr. Zeigler described it: “He went a little too far and he stopped.”

Had the girl been 16 at the time and not 14, he added, “it would have been perfectly acceptable.”

For Democrats, the prospect of a wounded Mr. Moore was a gift.

“This is revolting and the Republican Party and everybody’s who endorsed Roy Moore needs to disavow his candidacy right now and ask him to withdraw,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who leads the Senate Democratic campaign arm.

Until recently, few Democratic officials believed that Mr. Jones could topple Mr. Moore in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1992, and Democrats have debated fiercely whether to commit resources to the race. Now many think they have a chance to shrink the Republican majority to a single seat and potentially snatch the majority next year.

Correction: November 9, 2017
An earlier version of this article misstated Roy S. Moore’s election track record. He has both won and lost statewide races.

Richard Fausset reported from Atlanta, Jonathan Martin from Washington and Campbell Robertson from Pittsburgh. Alexander Burns, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting from Washington.[/QUOTE] Want to know why I say worse? Read the next one.