Anti-LGBT Activist Flip Benham: Roy Moore Sought Out Teen Girls for 'Purity'

Anti'-LGBT, anti-abortion activist Flip Benham claims Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, who shares his extreme views, may have once dated teenage girls because older women were married and Moore was seeking "purity" in a mate.

In an appearance this week on an Alabama radio show, Benham made the attempt to defend Moore, who is accused of sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl he reportedly dated when he was in his early 30s, and relationships with other teenage girls. Moore, a Republian and former Alabama Supreme Court chief justicewho is running for senator in a special election to be held December 12, has denied all the allegations.

In audio of the Matt & Aunie show posted by Right Wing Watch, Benham said Moore, now 70, may have been drawn to teen girls in the late 1970s and early '80s because of a shortage of available women of a slightly older age.

"I think that, number one, you need to understand, 40 years ago, what the [situation] was like in Alabama," Benham said. "Judge Roy Moore graduated from West Point and then went on into the service, served in Vietnam and then came back and was in law school. All of the ladies, or many of the ladies, that he possibly could have married were not available then, they were already married, maybe, somewhere. So he looked in a different direction and always with the [permission of the] parents of younger ladies. ... He did that because there is something about a purity of a young woman, there is something that is good, that's true, that's straight and he looked for that."

Hosts Matt Murphy and Andrea Lindenberg pointed out that Moore's wife, Kayla, had been married and divorced before marrying him, somewhat undermining the "purity" defense, but then Benham asked Murphy if it's acceptable for an adult male to date a 14-year-old girl with parental permission. "Benham clearly thinks that it is, but that line of questioning did not work out particularly well, since it prompted Murphy to ask Benham if he thinks it is acceptable for a man to date a 10-year-old girl if he receives permission from her parents, which caused Benham to angrily stumble around for a reasonable response," Right Wing Watch reports.

He finally agreed that would be inappropriate, leading Murphy to reply, "Congratulations, Flip. Welcome to the modern world." Listen below.