GOP pulls away from Moore
Party wants him out if sex allegations are true
WASHINGTON – Republicans distanced themselves Thursday from GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore, saying he should drop out of the Alabama special election if sexual misconduct allegations against him are true.
“If these allegations are true, he must step aside,” said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, establishing a line that was repeated by an array of his Senate Republican colleagues.
In a Washington Post story Thursday, a woman said Moore engaged in sexual touching with her when she was a teenager and he was in his 30s in the late 1970s. Three other women told the Post he pursued romantic relationships with them when they were 16, 17 and 18 years old in the same time period.
Moore, a former state Supreme Court chief justice, is running against Democrat Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney, in a special election Dec. 12 for the seat Jeff Sessions gave up to become President Trump’s attorney general.
Moore vehemently denied the charges, calling them “fake news.” His campaign called the allegations “completely false.” “This garbage is the very definition of fake news and intentional defamation,” campaign chairman Bill Armistead said in a statement.
Moore blamed the story on Democrats, tweeting, “The Obama-Clinton Machine’s liberal media lapdogs just launched the most vicious and nasty
round of attacks against me I’ve EVER faced! We are are in the midst of a spiritual battle with those who want to silence our message.”
Republicans count on a win in red state Alabama, where President Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton by 2-1 in
2016. Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority in the Senate and cannot afford to lose an otherwise safe seat.
Polls have shown Moore holding a narrow lead over Jones.
Moore beat Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed to fill the seat after Sessions’ departure, in a Republican primary in September, even though Trump supported Strange.
Moore has publicly railed against Republican leaders, including McConnell, who endorsed Strange in the Republican primary.
Moore became a national figure in
2003 when he was removed as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for refusing to follow a federal court order to take down a Ten Commandments monument from a judicial building.
He was re-elected, then suspended in 2016 for ordering the state’s probate judges to not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples even after the state’s same-sex marriage ban was overturned.
Several senators, including Richard Shelby, the senior Republican senator from Alabama, said last week they supported Moore’s bid.
The tone changed Thursday afternoon.
“If these allegations are true, there is no place for Roy Moore in the United States Senate,” Shelby said in a statement.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Strange should launch a write-in campaign if the allegations are true.
Strange didn’t comment Thursday. His office did not respond to several calls and emails.
“The allegations against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore are deeply troubling,” Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement. “If these allegations are found to be true, Roy Moore must drop out of the Alabama special Senate election.”
Some Alabama officials dismissed the allegations. “Even if you accept The Washington Post’s report as being completely true, it’s much ado about very little,” State Auditor Jim Zeigler told the Montgomery Advertiser.
Moore will remain on the ballot no matter what happens over the next few weeks.
Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill said Thursday that ballots had already been printed.