Senate candidate roy moore are driving the gop deeper into its existential crisis. Put on the light and let the truth come out to where it is. Plus, how the 2017 election shattered barriers for diverse candidates across the country. Well talk to virginias first transgender elected official. Finally, the intersection of politics and sports. Over 70 years of meet the press. What would happen in the nba without Michael Jordan . It could give the rest of us a chance to win. This is mtp daily, and it starts right now. Good evening. Im chuck todd here in win washington and welcome to mtp daily. Since when were morality become an issue of political convenience . Sexual misconduct involving minors is an issue that shouldnt have a side depending on who youre rooting for to win a special election to the u. S. Senate. Right now there are Republican Leaders in alabama and a few around the country that are still rallying behind Senate Candidate roy moore despite these allegations reported by the Washington Post for multiple women that he initiated sexual contact or made romantic overtures when they were teenagers. One as young as 14, and he was in his 30s. Yesterday moore denied the allegations calling them, completely false and a desperate political attack. But moments ago he appeared on Sean Hannitys radio show. Insisted hes never engaged in Sexual Misconduct. Alleged collusion involving his accusers and claimed hes never had any contact with Leigh Corfman. The accuser who says he was 14 when he initiated sexual contact with her. Take a listen. I dont know ms. Corfman from anybody. Never had contact with her. These accusations are completely false, i believe politically motivated brought to stop a Successful Campaign and thats what theyre doing. A little more from that interview just a few moments ago where he defines where he thinks there is a line that should be drawn. Nobody thats abusers of 14yearolds, age 32 or age 17 it doesnt matter. If you abuse a 14yearold, you shouldnt be a Senate Candidate. I agree with that, but i did not do that. Nbc news has not independently confirmed the allegations but heres the thing. Some back moore even if the worst were true. Seems in their view this isnt as bad as letting a democrat win a special election to the u. S. Senate. Heres Covington County republican chairman william blocker who says even if there was hard evidence to confirm the allegations, theres no option to support doug jones. Big county republican chairman jerry powell who says, even if there was proof, i would vote for judge moore, because i wouldnt want to vote for doug. Or the Geneva County republican chairman who says, other than being with an underage person he didnt really force himself. If he withdraws, that would concede it to the democrat. Or Alabama State auditor jim zeigler saying yesterday mary was a teenager and joseph an adult carpenter and they became parents of jesus. There is nothing to see here. Today ziegler to nbc news that was taken out of context. My point was given the allegations that roy moore denies theyre trying to paint this dirty old man syndrome which doesnt exist and went on to say, a long instance of older men and teenage girls, example, Lauren Bacall and humphrey bogart. They finally got married when she was 20. If they believe the man is predatory they are guilty of allowing limb to exist for 40 years. Prosecute them. You cant be a victim 40 years later, in my opinion. A source close to steve bannon tells nbc news he will maintain support for now as well. The president , the Vice President and a lot of Senate Republicans all say moore should quit the race if the allegations are true, but some would ask and we ask what additional proof do they need . On that point, alabamas republican governor kay ivey today. Reporter did you find the womens words to be trustworthy, what they told the paper . Why wouldnt it be . I mean, i dont know. Anything can happen. We just got to get more facts. Folks, this isnt a phenomenon isolated on the right. Democrats dont have clean hands either, look how they treated kennedy the affairs or Monica Lewinsky and its much bigger than politics. When did people get so brazen admitting there is no true north on their mores compass and when did it start pointing in the most convenient direction . Joining me, covering roy moores race all along. Welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me. How much is the Alabama Republican Party unified 5ir7ar roy moore right now . Most of the folks came from moores strongholds in rural areas, and in the, in the wire grasp. What the appear thinks is a great question. The Alabama Republican Party has pretty much gone radio silent over these allegations. Weve also reached out to legislative leaders to see what they think, and some endorsed moore. They have also not responded to our questions. So youre starting to see individual republicans backing moore, but Nothing Official yet from the party itself. Is there any serious effort to replace him . Is there any serious effort at galvanizing a writein campaign . There has been a writein candidate who stepped forward, a businessman naked ma named ma watson. Its very hard to get him off the ballot. According to state law, would be on the ballot even if he formally wanted to withdraw and hes given no indication hes going to do so. At this point, moore is still the kwnd for the Republican Party. Could the party withdraw him without his permission . Great question, and its its i dont know exactly the answer. I can say that the Alabama Republican Party does have a faction that is very loyal to roy moore. If the party did make an effort to do that, i expect you would see a lot of pushback from that faction. You know when it comes to allegations like this, they usually dont come in a vacuum. Meaning when it comes out, theres usually this, oh. Boy, there had been whispers about x, or whispers about y throughout this entire culture phenomenon thats shaking the country right now. All of these stories have had that. Has there ever been a whiff of this before . Personally, i have not heard of anything about these allegations before i saw the Washington Post story. Other reporters in alabama had said they have heard rumors about it, but i i personally never heard anything until this Washington Post story came out. All right. Ive seen one overnight poll, instapoll and am hesitant to put it up. I think a onenight poll is dangerous in general. Will make people think the race means, is suddenly moved in one direction. But what is your sense that do the republicans think this is shifted the race where he could actually now lose it . This is the, been the issue with the race, even before these allegations. Moore was running a very lethargic campaign. He was not doing very many public events. Hes given the airwaves to doug jones over the past six weeks and given the democrats an opportunity to define himself without any real pushback. Now that these allegations are here the question becomes, when will we see roy moore again at a public event campaigning . Doing the kind of what you would expect from these campaigns. You have to say soup the structurassume the structural issues favor moore. This simply complicates things for the republicans. Is there a specific area that they, where this suddenly will become the, the swing part of this race . Is it huntsville . We want to watch the suburbs. You want to watch the suburbs of huntsville, shelby county, suburban birmingham. See what it does with suburban women, who traditionally are moores weakest building block. All right. And the doug jones campaign, theyve had airwaves to themselves. Have you seen roy moore advertising yet . I know it was supposed to be coming soon. They had blocked some airtime. I have not seen any ads. There was a group that bought a, that did buy an antidoug jones ad about a month ago, but otherwise, jones has had the rare luxury of being able to tell his own story without having to deal with any pushback on television. All right. Interesting there. Brian lyman, going to be quite the what do we have . About 32 days before election day . Quite the wild ride. Thanks for coming on and im sure well talk to you soon. Joining me now, perry hooper jr. A former state representative and was the alabama cochair for Donald Trumps president ial campaign and now a backer of roy moore for senate. During the runoff, i should say, you backed senator strange. Is that correct you sir . I did. I sure did. Yes. Let me ask you this. I dont know if youve heard all of judge moores interview with sean hannity or excerpts of it. Are you satisfied with his denials . Well, let me just tell you this. This just roy moores been in the public eye and Public Office for the last 30some odd years and now these ladies are just now coming forward with these type of accusations and allegations. I just think its its typical democrat gutter politics. I was i chaired, as you mentioned earlier, the donald trump for president campaign. And i see the same path that they tried to make those same allegations against donald trump, only to find they were all false. You know, they began trying to hit the race issue. And it didnt move the needle any. I understand, but then all of a sudden they but the question i asked you, are you satisfied with judge moores denials . Absolutely i amount. I think this is all gutter politics. Hes an honest man. A man of integrity. And i think it doesnt take a Rocket Scientist to figure out that what this is all about. Were right at a month going into probably one of the most important United States senate races in the country. That 51st senate vote extremely important to the president. He needs those votes. Its about issues. Its about repealing obamacare. Its about cutting taxes, and by golly, its about building the wall. Thats what this election is about and doug jones, he dont support any of that. Let me ask you hes way back, behind by about 11 pin 1 points, 12 point high as 15 points in the polls. They decided to take this path. This gutterstyle politics. Let me ask you this. Why would take the case of ms. Corfman. Why would she what would be her moat jasion youre claiming its gutter politics. She put her whole life on the record with the Washington Post. Warts and all. Whether it was bankruptcies, her own troubles in her past. Is it not credible to you that one of the reasons she didnt feel she could speak out, because she just thought she wasnt in a position where people would believe her . Well, first of all, the Washington Post, my understanding, is that they went to her after some people told them to go talk to her. And that you may want to check the record, but thats what i understood. Thats what the the Washington Post itself seemed to report they said, yes, as reporting on yes, you have that correct. As they were reporting on roy moore in general. Go ahead, sir. Let me say this nobody condones that stuff. You know . Weve seen hollywood film producers involved with that. Weve seen football players, baseball players. Roy moore, thats not in his dna, man. Hes a man of honesty and integrity and you know, were to use a football phrase, were in the red zone, man. Were in that political zone of politics. And they know it. Both sides, Republican Party, democrat party, knows that this race is extremely important, and i, i made this, you may have heard it, i was the one that kind of broke the idea that if these ladies felt like that theyre telling the truth and they need to go ahead and take a lie detectors test. A polygraph test. Then well find out whos telling the truth and whos not. Well, then, if you want them to do that, should judge moore take a Lie Detector Test . That would be fine with me, but since they brought these allegations, you know, this is politics. We want to make sure if thats the case, lets see it. I guess im trying to understand why are you so confident that these accusers are telling a falsehood, and yet as youve seen, were in a cultural moment. You see to believe all the allegations coming out of hollywood and the allegations coming out of elsewhere. Why do you think why do you automatically assume these women are putting their name on the record, willing to have people attack them personally, why do you think they want to go out there and lie . I dont think anybodys attacking them personally. I certainly havent, because i dont like to see any type of sexual assault. I think its wrong, and people should pay the consequences. But as far as the hollywood film producers, you know, were not talking about, you know, 10 or 15. I think theyve one of those assistant directors was accused by 430 or Something Like that. Of Sexual Harassment and sexual assault. If theres evidence there, i dont care who it is, they should be prosecuted. Its just, these ladies i mean, theyve had 30, 35, 40 years to step forward. But its just an odd situation that just happens to be one month going into an election when roy moores up by 11 points. You sound like youre pragmatics about politics. If Roy Moore Sun electable, do you think he should step aside . He should not step aside, but im like the president. I think some of these allegations are wrong, and, i mean, this could personally ruin somebodys life by some of these accusations. Thats why we want the truth, to make sure the truth is known. But roy moore is a good man. If any of this stuff is factual, he would voluntarily step aside, im convinced of that. And the president said that and ive said that, but right now im supporting roy moore. Im voting for roy moore and i think the great state of alabamas going to vote for roy moore. All right. Perry hooper, former state director for Donald Trumps campaign in 2016. Former state representative, thanks for coming on and sharing your views. Appreciate it. Thank you for inviting me. You got it. Like we said, this problem is much, much bigger than roy moore in alabama. Up next, a look at the wave of Sexual Misconduct hitting state houses across the country. Aim and all that . Is that whole thing still dragging on . No, i took some pics with the app and. Filed a claim, but. You know how they send you money to cover repairs and. They took forever to pay you, right . No, i got paid right away, but. At the very end of it all, my agent. Wouldnt even call you back, right . No, she called to see if i was happy. But if i wasnt happy with my claim experience for any reason, theyd give me my money back, no questions asked. Can you believe that . No. The claim satisfaction guarantee, only from allstate. Switching to allstate is worth it. Welcome back to mtp daily. As weve said, were in a much larger moment now in this country. Women, some men, in almost industry and every corner of the country are speaking out about Sexual Harassment assault and misconduct. More and more men are being forced to acknowledge and sometimes apologize for improper behavior. As weve seen with roy moore, the problem goes far beyond the media and hollywood. Rocking governments at the state and local level. The a. P. Found California Legislature paid at least 580,000 in the last five years to settle harassment, racism and other claims since 2012. In texas, reports of a secret spread sheet chronicling sexual predators inside austin from violent groping to sexual assault. In minnesota, spreading through the State Capitol on both sides of the aisle and one republican state representative had his Committee Chairmanship suspended. Kentucky, the states speaker of the house forced to step down but refusing to give up his seat for covering up Sexual Harassment allegations. Florida, six women a accused the States Senate budget chair of groping and Sexual Harassment. These accusations are coming alive in states across the country, state houses from massachusetts to michigan, to connecticut, to colorado. Not a partisan issue and both parties are grappling with what the political cost should be when allegations come to light. More mtp daily in 60 seconds. , we get there are some responsibilities of love you gotta do on your own. And some you shouldnt have to shoulder alone. Like ensuring your family is protected, today and tomorrow, no matter what the future brings. See how Life Insurance from lincoln can help start protecting your familys financial future now, at lincolnfinancial. Com. Looking for a hotel that fits. Whoooo. Your budget . Tripadvisor now searches over. 200 sites to find you the. Hotel you want at the lowest price. Grazi, gino find a price that fits. Tripadvisor. Wheyou wantve somto protect it. E, at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. With an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. Legalzoom. Legal help is here. Welcome back. Lets bring in tonights panel. Hugh hewitt, host of Msnbc Hugh Hewitt and msnbc contributor andrea mechl. And correspondent for msnbc and glenn thrush, nbc news political analyst and how many days are you soeber from twitter . Going on two and a half months. Carry twitter coins with us, those able to break the twitter the twitter habit. Andrea mitchell, first, before we get into alabama specifically, this moment, weve had fits and starts of this moment before. Yes. Youve cov