Fox Poll: Dems Doug Jones Leading Roy Moore By 8 Pts; White House Doesn't Call For Moore To Exit Race
TAPPER: Welcome back. Tonight, brand new numbers giving us a sense of just what kind of toll the scandal involving Senate Candidate Roy Moore might be taking on his campaign. A new Fox News poll showing that Democrat Doug Jones in this poll is beating Moore by eight percentage points in the state of Alabama, a state where Democrats tend not to do that well statewide. We learned tonight that the governor of Alabama will not delay the special election to be held in December and that the Alabama Republican Party chair says his committee will stand firmly behind the nominee. Today, Moore assailed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying that McConnell was trying to steal the election from him. But we also continued to see new allegations from Alabama women who say that Moore made sexual advances toward them when they were in high school. President Trump did not answer questions reporters shouted at him today about Roy Moore and his Press Secretary Sarah Sanders did not have a firm answer when asked whether the president believes Roy Moore's many accusers One of the women who held a news conference supporting Moore today, a woman from the group called Faith to Action would not take those questions for Roy Moore either.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has Judge Roy Moore categorically denied he dated high school girls, teenage high school girls when he was in his 30s?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've read his letter and it addresses that very clearly.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can he speak for himself, please?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Judge, you're running for Senate. Speak please.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I paid for the microphone. I'm sorry.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sir, do you have a question about an issue?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the issue right now.</s>TAPPER: That's the issue right now. Let's bring back my panel. Symone Sanders, I have to say, I don't know if I believe this poll.</s>SANDERS: I do not believe this poll, Jake. Look. I think it's like what we saw in the general election. The general election, we saw all this polling where people just frankly didn't want to identify as Trump supporters, we know that now, because Donald Trump is the president. And so, I think what we're seeing is folks in these polls do not want to identify as Moore supporters. There is -- Alabama is a really special place. And in order for Doug Jones -- I hope Doug Jones wins, I'll do everything I can to help Doug Jones win. But, in order for Doug Jones to come out victorious in this, you -- the numbers have to really line up. And some of the numbers are -- the African-American turnout has to ratchet up to about 28 percent in a special election. You need a very high percentage of moderate Republicans who probably feel badly and do not like that an alleged pedophile who is on the ballot to pull the lever for Doug Jones. And all these things have to come together on a Tuesday in December.</s>CARPENTER: But even if the poll is fake, I hope Republicans believe that it is real.</s>TAPPER: Why?</s>CARPENTER: Because I want the Republican governor of Alabama to take action to find -- to give Alabama Republican voters a better choice.</s>TAPPER: Oh, you want her to cancel --</s>CARPENTER: Yes, absolutely.</s>TAPPER: -- so they can put a new Republican as a nominee?</s>CARPENTER: Yes, I want the Republican Party to have standards. And yes, I do understand that it is radical action, but part of --</s>SANDERS: Yes.</s>CARPENTER: -- politics is using the tools that you have available to you.</s>SANDERS: OK. Wait.</s>CARPENTER: The Republican Party of Alabama does have the tools to do this. I would strongly encourage them to do that. Otherwise, what are they going to do if he wins? Really right now, vote for Roy Moore so we can expel him?</s>SANDERS: Then my pick is vote for Doug Jones. My pick is for vote for Doug Jones because he had the better record and no one has accused him of sexual assault today.</s>CARPENTER: One point, I am sort of sick about the fact that senators just passed new sexual harassment training for members and staff on the Hill. And the fact that if Senator Roy Moore be the -- may be the first person to go through that, it's sort of revolting.</s>SANDERS: Well, I don't think one training is going to help Roy Moore because --</s>CARPENTER: Well, that's my thing. What's the point if you're going to elect this man and tell your people to vote for him?</s>SANDERS: Look. The voters in Alabama in their primary for this special, they made -- which was a mess, they made a decision about Roy Moore. I do not agree with that decision which is why I'm supporting Doug Jones.</s>CARPENTER: But they did not have the information available to them at the time which is why --</s>SANDERS: But look, I hear you. But we -- it is really dangerous to talk about just changing and moving an election. The Republican Party has a penchant (ph) to it. But sometimes, if they do not like things, they want to just change what's going on --</s>CARPENTER: -- I remember America --</s>SANDERS: We are America.</s>CARPENTER: I was encouraging the delegates to vote for someone else other than Donald Trump. I stood on a panel with Van Jones. He said you cannot aboard your candidate at this point in time. I said it is the right thing to do and look what happened, Donald Trump became president.</s>TAPPER: I want to play some sound from White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders earlier today. Take a listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does the president believe Roy Moore's accusers or does he think Roy Moore should drop out of this race?</s>SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Look, the president believes that these allegations are very troubling and should be taken seriously. And he thinks that the people of Alabama should make the decision on who their next senator should be</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, that's a no? He thinks Roy Moore should stay in?</s>SANDERS: Look, the president said in his statement earlier this week that if the allegations are true, then that Roy Moore should step aside.</s>TAPPER: So again, we're hearing -- this is a -- I mean, the story is so fast moving, I hate to say it, but like that answer is so last week because now we have Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan saying I believe the women. I believe the allegations. Can the White House continue to say, oh, he finds the allegations troubling if they're true he needs to resign or do they eventually need to like say whether or not the president believes them?</s>CARPENTER: Donald Trump and by extension Sarah Huckabee Sanders, they're gagged by Donald Trump's past. He cannot all of a sudden say I believe these women because nearly a dozen women have accused him, among them a former apprentice contestant, among them former beauty pageant contestants. So, how on earth could he follow the correct moral line without saying, yes, these women who have accused me should also be believed.</s>SANDERS: Yes. Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the accusers of Donald Trump liars. And so, people that live in glass houses to have a tendency not to want to try to throw stones. And that's what we're seeing here. So, the president, his hands are essentially tied. If he thinks Roy Moore should step down, I'm wondering if he then is going to turn to his resignation as president of the United States of America.</s>TAPPER: Well, I am hearing a lot of people today saying Al Franken needs to step down, but they're not saying the same thing about President Trump. I mean --</s>SANDERS: We have to address across the board, OK? So if we are going to really attack this issue, if we really want to change the system, we have to have a certain set of standards by which we engage in this work of combating sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual microaggression. So, we can't have one standard for somebody and another standard for someone else.</s>TAPPER: One standard for everybody. Everyone, thanks so much, really appreciate. A lot going on including the House just passing the Republican tax plan, but will it get through the Senate? Stick around.