In the closing days of the race for Jeff Sessions’ former Senate seat, we haven’t heard much from Roy Moore. That’s rather surprising, since he’s facing a dogfight in a race that past history suggests should have long since been over. He only has himself to blame. After all, with few exceptions, his main response to allegations that he molested women and pursued girls young enough to be his daughters has been to scream “FAKE NEWS!”
Well, Moore came out of hiding on Sunday–and in the process, proved just how tone-deaf he and the people propping him up truly are. He sat down for an interview–with a girl who is only 12 years old.
Moore’s interviewer was Millie March, a girl from Northern Virginia who has become a sensation in right-wing circles. She was first interviewed by teh The America First Project, a “populist nationalist” outfit started by former writers at Breitbart News, highlighted young Millie at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference. Watch here.
Since then, Millie, popularly known as “Trump Girl,” has appeared on “Fox & Friends,” and even met Trump himself in September. Although Millie has turned hard, hard, hard right at a tender age, it’s still refreshing to see kids aware of the issues that face this country.
But there’s nothing refreshing about what America First did this weekend. They brought Millie to Alabama to help campaign for Moore–and interview Moore himself at Alabama GOP headquarters. No, this isn’t snark. Watch here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIa_m1cu7Hc
America First Project vice president Jennifer Lawrence, a former Breitbart writer, said that she and her colleagues felt that in the face of “everything that’s happened,” they wanted to let Moore know that “a wide range of people” still support him.
Millie first spoke with Rich Hobson, Moore’s campaign manager. Hobson played up Moore’s uncompromising opposition to abortion, as well as his strong support of Trump’s border wall and the military. In a rather awkward statement given the circumstances, Hobson also wished that “the 11- and 12-year-olds” were lining up behind his candidate. Apparently Hobson must know that their older sisters, brothers, and cousins aren’t took keen on Moore.
She then sat down with Moore himself. Predictably, it was a softball fest. He reiterated his support for a wall, and even called for the military to help illegal immigration before the wall is built. As Moore sees it, the most important issues facing Alabama are religious freedom, health care, and taxation.
The problem, of course, was that Millie was even there in the first place. It need not be stated enough–a 12-year-old girl was allowed to sit down with a man who has been credibly accused of molesting little girls.
What was America First thinking? Granted, these are Breitbart alumni, so we shouldn’t have expected their standards to be that high. Indeed, according to The Atlantic, many of the people at America First thought Breitbart went soft when it tried to go mainstream in 2016. But surely at least one person in that bunch should have at least considered how this might look once this got outside the conservative bubble.
More importantly, what were Millie’s parents thinking? It’s hard to believe they didn’t read about the allegations in their hometown paper, The Washington Post. Even if they may think it was fake news, surely they would have at least wondered if this was a gamble even worth taking.
Whatever Moore and America First were trying to do here, it failed–and failed bigly. A lot of people have a lot of explaining to do.
(featured image courtesy Moore’s Facebook)
