The wife of Republican Roy Moore tried Friday to help him recover from sexual assault allegations that have imperiled his campaign for U.S. Senate, saying Alabama voters could count on him to fight abortion, gun control and transgender rights.
Kayla Moore did not directly address accusations that her husband decades ago molested a 14-year-old girl, sexually assaulted a 16-year-old waitress, grabbed the buttocks of a 28-year-old woman and made unwanted advances on teenagers.
But at an event in Montgomery, Ala., with women who back her husband, she said that attacks on him were part of a plot by liberals in the media, the Democratic National Committee and the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group.
"The very same people who were attacking President Trump are also attacking us," she said. "I personally think he owes us a thank you. Have you noticed you're not hearing too much about Russia?"
With a new Fox News poll showing that Democrat Doug Jones has pulled ahead in the Dec. 12 special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Moore went on the attack.
She said Jones _ a lawyer who prosecuted the case against the Ku Klux Klan members who killed four girls in a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham _ "is against everything we and Alabama stand for."
She questioned Jones' record on abortion, guns and transgender military service and bathroom access.
Roy Moore, a champion of religious-right causes when he was chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, has denied the allegations of sexual misconduct.
"He will not step down," his wife said.
