Roy Moore loses fundraising from RNC
The Republican National Committee has severed its fundraising ties to Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.
A Federal Election Commission filing late Tuesday shows that the national party is no longer part of the effort to raise money for Moore, the embattled GOP nominee facing allegations of molesting two teenagers when he was in his 30s.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee cut ties to Moore late last week after The Washington Post first reported on Moore and the women.
Washington Republicans are tightening pressure on Alabama’s GOP to keep Moore from being elected to the Senate next month, with many voicing hope that President Donald Trump could use his clout to resolve a problem that Republicans say leaves them with no easy options.
The Senate’s top Republican said the party still hopes to retain an Alabama Senate seat at the center of a scandal involving GOP nominee Roy Moore.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday: “We would hope to save the seat and that might require a write-in” campaign. McConnell said he expects to discuss the issue with President Donald Trump once he returns to Washington.
The national party has turned against Moore, a Christian conservative accused of molesting teenage girls during the late 1970s when he was in his 30s. Trump has remained quiet while on an extended trip to Asia.
McConnell said with the Dec. 12 election four weeks away, “it’s a very complicated matter” to try to retain the seat. Moore can’t be knocked off the ballot under Alabama law.
Speaking Tuesday night at a Baptist church revival in southwest Alabama, Moore said there is a “spiritual battle” going on in American politics as he faces mounting pressure from national Republicans to drop out of the race. Moore made only passing reference to the sexual misconduct allegations enveloping his Senate bid. As he has done at other stops, he suggested the allegations were an effort to stop his political career.
Moore asked: “Why do you think they’re giving me this trouble? Why do you think I’m being harassed in the media and people pushing for an allegation in the last 28 days of the election?”
Two women by name have said Moore molested them in the 1970s when one was 14 and the other 16 and he was a local district attorney, and three others said he pursued romantic relationships with them around the same time.
McConnell, in allout warfare with Moore, said there’d be conversations about the anti-establishment firebrand after Trump returns Tuesday night from Asia. He said he’d already spoken about Moore to the president, Vice President Mike Pence and White House chief of staff John Kelly.
“He’s obviously not fit to be in the United States Senate and we’ve looked at all the options to try to prevent that from happening,” said McConnell, who Monday said he believed Moore’s accusers. “This close to election, it’s a complicated matter.’”
Maintaining his political brand as an unrepentant outsider, Moore again denied abusing the women in an email that reminded voters of their loyalty to him: “He’s the same man you’ve always known him to be.” It added, “On to victory!”
Twice removed from his post as state Supreme Court chief Justice, Moore’s candidacy in the Dec. 12 special election confronts Republicans with two damaging potential outcomes. A victory saddles GOP senators with a colleague accused of abusing and harassing teen-agers, a troubling liability heading into next year’s congressional elections, while an upset victory by Democrat Doug Jones would slice the already narrow GOP Senate majority to an unwieldy 51-49.