His fourth day of flatout denying these allegations, and he is threatening to sue the Washington Post for publishing this bombshell report just a month before the Alabama Senate race. Three days ago the Washington Post published another attack on my character and reputation in a desperate to stop my political campaign. They are untrue. Lets start up on capitol hill with my colleague our senior washington correspondent brianna keilar. Starting on the Senate Majority leader here. What are his options for the Alabama Senate race, will he endorse a writein candidate . It is not up to Mitch Mcconnell. He mentioned that, brooke, that theyre looking at this idea of the success the potential success of a writein candidate, but that really is up to the state party to decide. At this point youre seeing Mitch Mcconnell distance himself and hes had days to look at roy moore and see how hes responded to the allegations and Mitch Mcconnell is now of a growing number of republican senators and of course, hes the most important Republican Senatorial voices and he does speak for the conference, but he is joined, as well by senator Susan Collins who just a short time ago tweeted out that after having listened to roy moore and his denials and his radio interview, she says that the denials are not convincing and that he must withdraw, but again, this really comes down to the state party because this is a december 12th general election. The state party can decide whether they invalidate his nomination which would mean because hes going to be on the ballot no matter what. Theres no getting around that. Hes on the ballot. Right, if votes are cast for him if his nomination were invalidated then it wouldnt count. Its all eyes on the Alabama State party and also on the white house, how is the white house responding to this, brooke . Because theyre still saying the if true, if true, he should step out. Right. Well, were going to go to alabama, and see how alabamans are feeling about this, thank you so much up on the hill for us. As we have noted the statute of limitations has passed. This will not see the inside of a courtroom so it really comes down to who do alabama voters believe . And that might have a lot to do with why roy moore is choosing to stay in the race. This is a country based on justice and on a persons innocent until proven guilty, and that stuff needs to sort itself out. If he went to the lord and asked for forgiveness for that and hasnt done anything like that since then, i believe that the good lords forgiven him and as a christian i have to forgive him also. Im not going to vote for him because im a democrat, but ive known him a long, long time. The thing that bothers me about those charges is that hes been in public life, running for many offices and as many times as this has happened no one has said anything until now, and i dont think it comes from any place except washington. Roy moores wife has now weighed in on the controversy engulfing her husband, calling the allegations a quote, witch hunt saying the washington establishment and Democrat Party will stop at nothing to stop their campaign. My next guest is someone who sides with roy moore. He is Brandon Moseley from the alabama political reporter who just wrote an opinion piece on why he believes roy moore. Also with me john hammond tree managing producer by a. L. Com. So gentlemen, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Brandon, let me just begin with you. I read your piece a couple of times over and you staunchly stand by and you believe in roy moore and not these female accusers, tell me why. Ive known roy moore. Ive known roy moore for 20 years. Ive covered his campaigns. I mean, i live in the county. I live in the county which is next to the county. I think if this was a serious if these allegationings were out there and were serious i probably would have heard them, but understanding that most people have not actually met roy and dont know him personally, were still talking about 38 years ago. Were talking about something thats past the statute of limitations. Let me jump in. You are use the word serious. Why dont you think these allegations are serious . Theyre 38yearold allegations. This would be a misdemeanor at the time under the code of alabama. The statutes been up since 86. If you go back and you dont elect anyone who has ever done anything wrong we wouldnt have had barack obama. I think he did cocaine. Bill clinton supposedly smoked marijuana. Okay, what . They werent eliminated from the ballot we are talking about allegations involving the Current Senate candidate of alabama. Let me stop you on the facts. Lets function in the factual world. Lets go back to the one involving a 14yearold Sexual Consent in alabama is 16 and you acknowledge that sexual contact with a 14yearold would have been illegal and would be considered sexual abuse by the books today, but brandon you make this argument that there wasnt a law against sexual abuse in alabama back in the 70s. So let me ask, are you saying that because there wouldnt have been a law according to you that that would have made it okay back then . No, im not. If roy moore committed a sin, thats a sin and thats not good, but were not talking about an actual crime here under thats prosecutable in 2017. I dont think you throw out 35 years of a mans career and his reputation because of an unsubstantiated allegation from 1979. Brandon, she was she was 14 years of age, and i dont know how much digging you did or didnt do into the law in 1979, but we did, and we found section 13a, 667, we found that this was on the books going back to 77, and would have been considered sexual abuse in the second degree. Care to respond . Which is a misdemeanor in alabama. Does that make it okay . If i am correct. No, but again, if, you know, roy moore has stolen a lawn mower when he was 21 thats bad, but thats not a reason 50 years later to all of a sudden, you know, throw him off the ballot or let Mitch Mcconnell pick the next senator of alabama. Sexual abuse, stealing a lawn mower, lets not even go there. You believe roy moores account, brandon and you want to believe the best in roy moore. Is it odd to you that he has not come out against these allegations point by point, line by line, accuser by accuser. Instead just shouts fake news and democrats when, lets all keep in mind, this now grown woman then 14yearold is a republican and voted for donald trump. The only accusation that would be a serious crime was that of the 14yearold, whether he gave alcohol to an 18yearold when the alcohol age was 19 in alabama. Again, the one that matters is the 14yearold complaint because that would be the most serious offense its become basically lee kaufmans word versus roy moores and corkmans account is different than the other accounts, and the other accounts roy moore dated some of these women, supposedly, as long as three months and they never got naked. According to corfman supposedly roy took off her shirt and pans and there was some inappropriate touching. On roy moore. Thats correct. You started the conversation. Im just trying to understand how youre feeling. You started the conversation saying you know roy moore for years and i dont know if youve met the president of the United States and im curious for the sake of conversation, you know, did you believe the Sexual Harassment and assault allegations against President Trump during the campaign . I believe that President Trump probably at some point in his life has acted inappropriately with women. Hes had three marriages e multiple mistresses. I still voted for donald trump. I mean, as a christian i can forgive a past indiscretion, certainly one thats not a crime at this time. If you knew these women if you knew these women, brandon. I understand. If you knew these women do you think your opinion of these women and their allegations would be different . If i knew these women i would be glad to pray that they, you know, for them and for their family, but i still dont think that we should abandon roy moore and vote for bill jones or some writein candidate because of accusations from 1979. As a journalist, i know you leave this piece saying you dont normally opine, although normally you are in this case, why didnt you call these women . You know, as journalists, we like to hear both sides of the story. You have roy moores side of the story and youve only read these womens side of the story and you are there on the ground in alabama. Why not call them, hear them out and report on that side of the story in your piece . The Washington Post had already done the story. They had their accounts. Reporters with local reporters have tried to contact some of them, but weve had no success. I was not assigned to by my editor to seek out these women for their accounts, but ive heard ive heard whatever the Washington Post put out and ive seen it, heard it or read it. Just as a journalist i still believe roy moore. Dont you think you should have a wellbalanced view before you put out there as i think you, you know, you call yourself an objective journalist, though clearly youve made your decision in this race. Why not pick up the phone and call these women . Ideally, these charges would have come out six months before the election and we would have had time to go out and interviewed the women interviewed all of the various stuff, but this all broke thursday in the Washington Post. Were talking about it here on monday as to whether roy moore should drop out of the race today or not. Based on everything i know at this point, and like i say, ive tried to research these women and their backgrounds as much as i could in the hours between that revelation and now. Sure. I still believe the best choice for the people of alabama is to elect roy moore on december 12th. Okay. Brandon moseley, thank you for the conversation. Let me bring in john hammond tree to just ask this, first, you know, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell said that there is this possibility of a writein candidate. Do you have any idea who that might be, john . No. The gop chairwoman terry latham came out today and warned against any republican in the state coming out and endorsing a writein campaign. Now she could change on that stance later, but right now it doesnt youd be hard pressed to see Luther Strange being the writein candidate considering how unpopular he was during the primary, and i dont want to speculate on who else might throw their name into the ring, but its hard to seize his nae coming off the ballot. I want to follow up on what brandon said. Weve had a chance to go into the county and talk to many people there and we have not found yet a single thing i dont believe a Credible News Organization within the state has found a single thing to refute the stances that have been made in the Washington Post as Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell said, theres not a reason yet to not believe these women. Thats why i was asking him if he picked up the phone or had gotten a hold of them or tried to. I appreciate you very much, John Hammontree and brian moseley, thank you to you as well. Coming up, who does President Trump believe when it comes to russian meddling in the u. S. Election . Does he believe Vladimir Putin himself . What i said there is i believe he believes that and thats very important for someone to believe. I believe that he feels that he and russia did not meddle in the election. This as two former intel chiefs say President Trump is getting played by Vladimir Putin. Also today, a stunning development. 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I believe that he feels that he and russia did not meddle in the election. As to whether i believe it or not im with our agencies. But in the president s remarks prior to that he also slammed the people when used to run the u. S. Intelligence agencies calling them political hacks. Two of those men now say the president got played by putin. Putin is committed to undermining our system, our democracy and our whole process, and to try to paint it in any other in any other way is, i think, astounding and in fact, poses a peril to this country. I think hes giving putin a pass, and i think it demonstrates to mr. Putin that donald trump can be played by foreign leaders who are going to appeal to his ego and to try to play upon his insecurities. Lets talk this over with cnn contributor michael di antonio, a biographer and lindsay more ann, a former undercover cia operative. Good to have both of you on. Michael, starting with you. The president continuously praised how he was treated on this trip, quote, it was red carpet like nobody, i think, has probably ever seen. Roll out a red carpet, you know, praise President Trump and bam, hes on your side. Is that how it works . Well, pretty much, and you know, the thing that he probably liked the most was that unlike in the past before he was president , he didnt have to bring the red carpet with him. He used to fly around his airplane with a red carpet for that very purpose. This does get into the realm of the ridiculous where he doesnt seem to be focused on the interests of the United States, in the case of these comments about whether he believes what putin says or believes that putin believes what putin says. Hes really placing his relationship with the russian leader ahead of his relationship with the American Intelligence Community and hes placing it ahead of u. S. Interests internationally. The key thing here, as we all know is that russia did try to get involved in our election, the plot seemed to be hatched at the very highest level, that