McCain Calls Moore Accusations ‘Disturbing,’ but He Was Accused of Sexual Misconduct in ’08

Guest post by John Roberts at Right Observer:

Arizona Sen. John McCain recently called for Alabama candidate Roy Moore to drop out of his state’s Senate race in light of the unproven sexual harassment allegations against him. However, McCain’s skeletons have just resurfaced…

From America News Hub:

What a lot of people seem to forget about John McCain is that he’s been a womanizer for decades. In fact, he was accused of sexual misconduct during his 2008 presidential campaign and he immediately dismissed the charges.

From Western Journalism:

However, McCain sang a different tune during his 2008 presidential when the senator faced his own accusations of sexual misconduct with a lobbyist 30 years his junior.

McCain was among the very first so called “establishment Republicans” to rush to judgment about the allegations against Moore, characterizing them as “disqualifying” and declaring that the candidate should “immediately step aside and allow the people of Alabama to elect a candidate they can be proud of.”

In February 2008, The Post and The New York Times published stories alleging McCain had had an improper relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman. The stories both related that the senator had developed a close relationship with the lobbyist who had business before the Commerce Committee, which he chaired.

The Times’ story also suggested his staff was concerned the relationship with Iseman had turned romantic, given the amount of time the two were spending together. The lobbyist has a strong resemblance to McCain’s wife Cindy.

Iseman was in her early 30s when the relationship began in the late 1990s, and McCain was in his early 60s. Both McCain and Iseman denied any affair.

McCain began a romantic relationship with Cindy while he was still married to his first wife Carol, according to FactCheck.org. A month after divorcing Carol, he married Cindy, when she was 25 and he was 43.

More, per Los Angeles Times:

“The Bezos-Amazon-Washington Post that dropped that dime on Donald Trump,” Bannon told a New Hampshire audience, “is the same Bezos-Amazon-Washington Post that dropped the dime this afternoon on Judge Roy Moore. Now is that a coincidence?”

This is typical of Bannon’s demagogic style. Because the Post is allegedly out to get Moore, not only can we not believe what the Post reports, we don’t have to credit what any of the people talking to the Post on the record actually said. It’s a kind of motivated reasoning that lets audiences connect dots and reach conclusions unsupported by the facts.

Bannon uses lots of adjectival nouns — “Bezos-Amazon Washington Post”! — to insinuate a nefarious conspiracy everyone is supposed to know about. He appeals to intellectual vanity and insecurity: Surely you don’t believe this is a coincidence! This is a classic example of the paranoid style, inferring evil intentions from objective facts.

The most telling detail is Bannon’s claim that the Post “dropped a dime” on Trump with the “Access Hollywood” tape. Translation: they’re snitches!

Time to clean out that closet, senator?

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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Thanks for sharing!