Ivanka, do the right thing: Endorse Doug Jones over Roy Moore

Discussing the Roy Moore scandal in an interview with The Associated Press, President Trump’s daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump said: “There’s a special place in hell for people who prey on children. I’ve yet to see a valid explanation and I have no reason to doubt the victims’ accounts.”

For our purposes today, let’s set aside all other issues surrounding any person named Trump to focus only on one paramount the issue — the Alabama Senate race — and one paramount question: whether Ivanka Trump will give meaning to her words and stand up for abused women and endorse Doug Jones over Roy Moore in the Dec. 12 election. 

It would be perfectly fine for Ivanka to say that if Republicans field a credible write-in candidate in the Senate campaign she would support that candidate, but if they do not, and either Jones or Moore will be the next elected senator from Alabama, she will unequivocally endorse Jones.

{mosads}If she were to endorse Jones over Moore, she would perform an invaluable service to all women across America, and particularly all teenage women, who have the right to be safe from abuse. 

If Jones is the only real alternative to Moore on Election Day, and Ivanka Trump were to refuse to endorse him, she would be suggesting that someone she describes as deserving “a special place in hell” should be supported or tolerated for service in the Senate. She would be revealed as just another politician who proclaims her support for women but does not stand up for women when the stakes are high and the chips are down.

My hope and expectation is that before Dec. 12 she will do the right thing, and give unequivocal support to the candidate who is the leading alternative to Moore, who will almost certainly be Jones. If she does, I will return to this site and offer her the highest praise for taking a stand of principle that proves her bona fides as a legitimate and powerful advocate for the rights and interests of women.

The number of women who have courageously come forward against Moore is now nine, enough to field an entire starting team in a Major League Baseball game. 

That number is probably destined to grow. 

My column in The Hill this week was titled “Armageddon in Alabama,” and began by suggesting that moms and dads in Alabama should consider whether they would want their teenage daughters to be alone with Moore in a shopping mall elevator on a winter night.  

Multiple reports, including large numbers of named and unnamed sources, describe Moore as regularly showing up at the local shopping mall on weekend nights looking for high school girls to pursue. Apparently on one occasion, Moore, who possessed the power of the office of the district attorney, had a woman in high school taken out of a class and summoned to the principal’s office to take his call to continue his pursuit of her.  

Other allegations from the large number of women who have come forth against Moore in Alabama are even worse. One case involves a young woman who was 14 years old at the time of Moore’s behavior.

By contrast, Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat who calls for bipartisanship between both major parties, is widely respected in his community for the work he has done over many years and the politics of civility and mutual respect that he stands for.

In the hours, days and weeks to come, Ivanka Trump will be asked exactly where she stands on the Alabama Senate race. She will have the opportunity to make a statement to the nation and the world on behalf of the rights of women, and the right of young people to be protected from predators. 

The only candidate who can prevent Roy Moore from serving in the Senate is Doug Jones. Ivanka Trump should do the right thing and endorse him.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.