December 13, 2017
Many Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, took a deep sigh of relief on Tuesday night when Doug Jones narrowly defeated Roy Moore for a crucial Senate seat in Alabama's special election.
Whether or not the vote was a referendum on politics or pedophilia, many of Moore's supporters had spent a solid month twisting reason to arrive at a pragmatic or moral defense of the judge's failed candidacy.
Prior to the outcome of last night's election, CNN's Jake Tapper interviewed Moore campaign spokesman Ted Crockett, who went to great lengths to justify his boss's history of homophobia and bigotry.
"It's just a sin, okay? You people want to take the whole two- or three-thousand years of our history, and you all just want to throw it out the window," said Crockett, who served three terms as Shelby County Commissioner before leaving office in 2008.
"As if you're going to make your own rules, your own man-made rules, and do whatever you want in sin, and that's part of the problem we've got in Washington, D.C. today."
Tapper then pressed Crockett on Moore's opposition to Muslim candidates holding office in the United States. Things went off the rails when Crockett falsely claimed there is a legal obligation to swear on a Bible during an oath of office.
Roy Moore campaign spokesman says Muslims shouldn't be in US Congress because they have to swear on the Bible. @jaketapper lets him know that's not the case https://t.co/2lQPwuRXrC
— CNN (@CNN) December 12, 2017
“You don’t actually have to swear on a Christian Bible,” Tapper told Crockett. “You can swear on anything, really.”
.@jaketapper He shld read Article VI, US Constitution: "...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." I took my oath on Bhagavad-Gita. Founding fathers ensured religious freedom in bedrock of this country. https://t.co/wqs5JJrwVJ
— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) December 12, 2017
Seven seconds of silence passed on live television as Crockett fumbled for an answer.
"I know that Donald Trump did it when we made him president," he finally offered.
For the record, when Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) took office in 2007, he swore on a Quran formerly owned by Thomas Jefferson.
