Roy Moore Staying in Senate Race; President Trump Blasts Al Franken, Stays Silent on Roy Moore; McConnell Sending Memo to Trump on Moore Options.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: The president says the Al Franken photo is really bad. It is. So is that "Access Hollywood" tape. THE LEAD starts right now. The hypocrisy seems to know no end, as President Trump fires off a hastily spelled tweet slamming Senator Al Franken, as the president's silence on Roy Moore and his own sexual assault accusers remains rather deafening. Standing by her man. Roy Moore's wife says he will not drop out, despite a growing list of women accusing him of creepy and unwanted and potential illegal behavior when they were in high school. Hey, how many men in their 30s do you know who call high schools to have students tracked down in trig class? Plus, glaring omission. Senators now saying the president's son-in- law and top adviser, Jared Kushner, owes them e-mails on WikiLeaks and Russian backdoor channels, documents he just happened to leave out of the pile. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We begin with the politics lead today, and the White House hammered this afternoon by questions about President Trump's past alleged sexual misconduct. Moments ago, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders suggested there is a distinction between accusations against Senator Al Franken and those against the president, because Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president has not. Asked if there should be an investigation into the Trump accusations, Sanders said that they have been addressed and the American people -- quote -- "spoke loud and clear when they elected President Trump." We're in the middle of a maelstrom of sexual harassment and assault allegations across this nation, and in many ways, for the first time, men facing actual consequences for this abhorrent behavior. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama being one of the most prominent in recent weeks, accused not only of targeting teens for intimate relations when he was in his 30s, but also of sexual abuse of girls as young as 14 and 16. Now, the White House had been diligently keeping President Trump from weighing in on Moore, trying to thread the needle by saying he found the charges disturbing, but assiduously avoiding saying whether he believed any of the women, this, of course, given the president's own obvious vulnerabilities regarding women who have made accusations. It was an attempt to avoid this very segment that I am doing right now. But, apparently, President Trump could not resist. After Democratic Senator Al Franken found himself apologizing after a woman accused him of kissing and groping her without her consent, the president tweeting in response -- quote -- "The Al Frankenstein picture is really bad. Speaks 1,000 words. Where do his hands go in pictures two, three, four, five and six while she sleeps? And to think that just last week he was lecturing anyone who would listen about sexual harassment for women" -- unquote. Now, first of all, in point of fact, no one has alleged that there are any other photographs, but, more importantly, this of course raises an obvious point. In Trump's world, we're supposed to believe the very compelling claims of Leeann Tweeden, to whom we spoke extensively on this show yesterday, but we are not supposed to believe these women, at least 12 women who have brought forward claims on the record about President Trump's past behavior, alleging actions ranging from sexual harassment to sexual misconduct to in some cases sexual assault, spanning the 1980s to the 2000s. Jessica Drake said in a press conference that Donald Trump hugged her, kissed her without consent and offered her money to go out with him. Summer Zervos, a contestant on "The Apprentice," accused President Trump of harassing her on multiple occasions, including kissing her -- quote -- "very aggressively" and placing his hand on her chest without her consent. Jessica Leeds told "The New York Times" that said during a flight he sat next to her, lifted the armrest and began to grab her breasts and put his hands up her skirt. Mindy McGillivray told "The Palm Beach Post" that Trump groped her at Mar-a-Lago -- quote -- "I was startled. I jumped," she said. Rachel Crooks, who worked in the Trump Tower, told "The New York Times" that Trump kissed her on her cheeks and her mouth without consent. "People" magazine's Natasha Stoynoff claims Donald Trump pushed her against a wall and forced his tongue down her throat. A former Miss Utah, Temple Taggart, claims Mr. Trump gave her a non- consensual embrace and kissed her on the lips during a pageant rehearsal against her wishes and repeated the behavior later at a Trump Tower meeting. Kristin Anderson says, in a crowded Manhattan club, Donald Trump reached up her miniskirt and touched her genitals through her underwear. Cathy Heller claims that President Trump forcibly kissed her at a Mother's Day brunch at Mar-a-Lago. Former Miss Finland Ninni Laaksonen said Mr. Trump grabbed her buttocks after a joint appearance on "The Late Show." Karena Virginia said in a press conference that President Trump touched the side of her breasts before allegedly asking, "Don't you know who I am?" And Jill Harth says Mr. Trump made unwanted sexual advances towards her, including groping her under her skirt. on two different occasions. Now, the Trump campaign issued statements denying those claims. And, of course, then candidate Trump himself had this to say:</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never.</s>TRUMP: All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.</s>TAPPER: Needless to say, President Trump has filed exactly zero lawsuits against any of his accusers. In fact, the only lawsuit filed in all of this has been from one of those accusers, Summer Zervos, for defamation of her character, a suit against him. A few weeks ago, when the accusations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein were made public, the president said he was -- quote -- "not surprised." In response, the White House was asked about its position regarding Mr. Trump's many accusers. And the White House press secretary, whose salary you taxpayers pay, stood by that line while standing at the podium from the people's house, saying all of these women are liars.</s>QUESTION: Is the official White House position that all of these women are lying?</s>SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Yes, we have been clear on that from the beginning and the president's spoken on it.</s>TAPPER: While President Trump has yet to weigh in on whether he believes any of the seven women who claim that Roy Moore in his 30s pursued intimate relations with them when they were in high school, including one who says he had sexual contact with her when she was 14, and another one who says he sexual assaulted her when she was 16, that didn't apply to presidential daughter Ivanka Trump. Ivanka Trump said about U.S. candidate Roy Moore -- quote -- "There is a special place in hell for people who prey on children. I have yet to see a valid explanation and I have no reason to doubt the victims' accounts." No reason to doubt the victims' accounts, which, again, raises the question for Ivanka Trump and for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, for that matter, why do you believe the Roy Moore accusers, but you do not believe those who accuse Donald Trump? I mean, even beyond all of these accounts shared by women who came forward on the record, at quite a lot of risk, to share their grim stories, you really don't have to look much farther than President Trump's own words.</s>TRUMP: You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful -- I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. I just kiss. I don't even wait.</s>TRUMP: And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.</s>BILLY BUSH, "ACCESS HOLLYWOOD": Whatever you want.</s>DONALD TRUMP: Grab them by the</s>TAPPER: "You can do anything. You can do anything." You can do anything, except criticize other alleged offenders without folks like us pointing out the rank hypocrisy of it. Just a little note: People in glass White Houses shouldn't throw stones. CNN Washington correspondent Ryan Nobles has more from the White House now. And, Ryan, how is the White House responding to all of these quite legitimate questions about the president and his response to Al Franken, considering his own history?</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, as you point out, the fact that the president waited less than 12 hours to weigh in on the allegations against Al Franken has really opened the White House up to a level of criticism on two different fronts. Of course, there is the issue with Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, who is facing accusations of sexual impropriety. But there then there are the president's accusers as well, as you accurately lay out, 12 different women who have accused the president of sexual impropriety at different points. Well, Sarah Sanders was asked about that very specifically today during the White House press briefing, and this was her response.</s>HUCKABEE SANDERS: Senator Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president hasn't. I think that's a very clear distinction.</s>NOBLES: The distinction there, that Senator Franken has admitted his wrongdoing and the president hasn't. As it relates to the situation in Alabama, the president has yet to weigh in on this hardly at all. He talked about it very briefly during his trip to Asia, said he didn't have to time to read in on the issue, but would talk about it more when he gets back to Washington. He has yet to do that. Sarah Sanders repeatedly has deflected questions about it, not talking about the specifics at all. Sara Murray tried to press Sarah Sanders on that, specifically asking about what the president thinks about the victims. Take a listen.</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Can you tell us whether the president believes the women who are making these allegations against Roy Moore, and would he willing to ask the Alabama governor to delay the election or take a step like that to try to intervene in this electoral process in Alabama?</s>HUCKABEE SANDERS: The president certainly finds the allegations extremely troubling, as I stated yesterday. And he feels like it's up to the governor and the state -- the people in the state of Alabama to make a determination on whether or not they delay that election or whether or not they support and vote for Roy Moore.</s>NOBLES: And that's an important distinction I want to point out, Jake. We know that the majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has sent a memo to the White House and one of the options in that memo is how to deal with the situation in Alabama is trying to convince the governor there to delay the election. Today, Sarah Sanders saying that it is up to the governor to make that decision. So far, Kay Ivey has said that she is not inclined to make that choice, but at this point, it still remains a possibility -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: All right, Ryan Nobles at the White House, thank you so much. My panel's with me to break this all down. I want to start with you, Kirsten Powers. I thought that was a very interesting sentence construct by Sarah Sanders. "Al Franken has admitted wrongdoing. The president hasn't," not Al Franken did something wrong, and the president didn't.</s>KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN COMMENTATOR: Yes.</s>TAPPER: But -- I mean, I don't think she meant it this way, at least not consciously. But she's saying, well, he admitted it and President Trump hasn't admitted it.</s>POWERS: Yes. Well, this creates kind of a conundrum, right? What do you do with the -- the same thing for Roy Moore, who says he didn't do it, and so, therefore, people say, well, I don't really have to hold him accountable, but we do have to hold Al Franken accountable. Now, Al Franken -- the other thing I want to say, though, people are saying, Al Franken admitted it. Well, it's a picture. He really -- he doesn't get extra credit for admitting something we have photographic evidence of, and in fact he didn't really admit the part of...</s>TAPPER: Not the kiss, the forced kiss.</s>POWERS: Even in his sort of admission, he's sort of raising questions about it. It wasn't what he intended. And she's saying, no, actually, you grabbed me and you kissed me and you sexually assaulted me. He actually hasn't really completely admitted it.</s>TAPPER: Interesting. And, Kaitlan, so interesting. President Trump's advisers, I know, telling him, don't weigh in on the Roy Moore affair, don't weigh in on the Roy Moore affair, knowing that the moment he did, all the questions would be just like the segment I just did, why believe these accusers and not believe these accusers? But he just couldn't help himself with Al Franken.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. He's like held off so much on commenting on Roy Moore. He's been asked about it tirelessly during his entire trip in Asia. The only thing they said about it is the statement that Sarah Sanders put out that said these allegations are very troubling, and, if true, he should step aside.</s>TAPPER: If true.</s>COLLINS: And then the president said that. Right. And it's, how do you determine if these allegations are true? What proof does the White House want, beyond these women going on the record and saying this happened to them because of Roy Moore? And Sarah Sanders suggested yesterday it should go to court. But this election is less than a month away at this point. It not sure -- or not clear what proof they would want from this. But, right, the president, of course, you know, just 12 hours after the Al Franken news was published, he commented on it. Meanwhile, it's been over a week since the Roy Moore news broke, and he hasn't said a word about it. It really just goes to show, when it's a Democrat, the president is more than happy to comment on it, but when it's Roy Moore, someone who people who voted for him are going to support, then he doesn't want to say a word about it.</s>TAPPER: Nia-Malika, we're going get to you in just one second. I have to squeeze in a commercial here. We have got a lot more to talk about -- stick around -- about President Trump's response to the Franken allegations coming up. Stay with us.