Roy Moore spokesperson says the GOP Senate candidate 'probably' thinks homosexual conduct should be illegal
Screenshot via CNN
- Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore's spokesperson said Moore "probably" believes homosexual conduct should be illegal.
- Moore is running in a special election taking place Tuesday to fill the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
- Crockett argued that the US should return to "moral law," and this is not the first time Moore has endorsed criminalizing homosexual conduct.
Roy Moore's spokesperson was asked Tuesday whether the Alabama GOP Senate candidate believes homosexual conduct should be illegal.
"Probably," the spokesman, Ted Crockett, replied.
Moore is currently in a heated race against Democrat Doug Jones to fill the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The special election takes place Tuesday, and polls close at 8 p.m. EST.
Crockett appeared on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper" and argued for a return to "moral law" in the US.
"Homosexuality is a sin in the biblical sense," Crockett told host Jake Tapper. "That is where Roy Moore is in the state of Alabama."
When Tapper asked him whether Moore believed that the Christian Bible should be US law, Crockett replied that the country "was founded on the Christian Bible."
Tapper interjected and pointed out that the US law operates based on a separation of church and state and asked Crockett if Moore believed homosexual conduct should be illegal.
When Crockett replied that Moore "probably" believed it should be, Tapper asked what the punishment would be if it were up to Moore.
"It's just a sin, okay?" Crockett said. "That's what it is."
Moore made similar comments in 2005 and 2015, replying affirmatively when he was asked whether homosexual conduct should be criminalized.
"Sodomy was declared illegal by the United States Supreme Court in 1987, it said there was no right under the Constitution to enlarge the fundamental rights of homosexuals," Moore said during a 2015 interview, according to a video posted to YouTube.
During Tuesday's exchange, Tapper said, "I understand what they tell you in church or what they tell you in synagogue or what they tell you in a mosque. I'm not talking about —"
Crockett interjected and said that was what the Bible dictated.
"That's what this is about," he said. "You people want to take the whole 2— or 3,000 years of our history and you all just want to throw it out the window as if you're just going to make your own rules — your own man-made rules — and do whatever you want and sin."
He added that that was "part of the problem" in Washington, DC, and said that people "ought to love their wives."
"Roy Moore loves his wife. Kayla loves him," Crockett said. "It's clear on television, you can tell that ... We need to get back to moral law."
Moore's campaign was crippled after nine women accused him of sexual misconduct or of pursuing relationships with them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. But polling has been all over the place in recent days, with surveys showing a race that has Democrat Doug Jones leading Moore by 10 points, Moore leading Jones by nine points, and a tied contest.
Prominent congressional Republican support for Moore plummeted when the allegations became public. But things started looking up when President Donald Trump threw his support behind Moore. The former judge also has strong backing from anti-establishment figures like former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, and House Speaker Paul Ryan's far-right primary challenger, Paul Nehlen.