GOP rep: It's OK for a grown man to date teens as long as he's a "gentleman"

Now right-wing conservative Rep. Mo Brooks, who challenged Moore in the primary earlier this year, has added yet another ridiculous justification to the ever-growing list of excuses for Moore’s infamous stalking of teenage girls — after literally running down a stairwell to try to avoid explaining his support earlier this month.

The accusations from multiple women, as well as reports from residents of Moore’s town about his reputation for aggressively preying on teenagers, are all lies and distortions, according to Brooks.

During an interview with an Alabama radio station, the congressman said Beverly Young Nelson, who alleged that Moore assaulted her when she was 16, is “clearly a liar.”

He blamed “the mainstream leftwing socialist Democrat news media trying to distort the evidence” against Moore, adding that his “analysis of the evidence is that is not the case.”

But then Brooks said that other accusations against Moore, of pursuing teenage girls — at the mall, from which he was banned, and at the local high school — don’t matter, even if they’re true.

“Well, that one witness’ testimony is in direct and stark contrast with that of the other seven ladies, who said that he acted like an officer and a gentleman,” Brooks said.

Whether Moore might have held open a door or said “please” and “thank you” when he was trying to “date” high school students is beside the point. And while some of his accusers have suggested they were flattered at the time by Moore’s interest, as grown women, they recognize how inappropriate it was for a man in his 30s to cruise teenagers at a mall and even call them out of class at school to ask them out on dates.

That, of course, is the point.

Brooks and so many of his fellow Alabama Republicans have gone to incredible lengths to defend Moore — when even many national Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have said they believe the accusations and do not think Moore should serve in the Senate.

The state’s Republican governor, Kay Ivey, even said she’d rather have a pedophile in the Senate than a Democrat. Sadly, that appears to be an all too common sentiment among many Republicans in Alabama — and, worst of all, the Republican occupying the Oval Office.