Republicans urge Moore to quit race
WASHINGTON: United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell led a chorus of establishment Republicans yesterday urging Roy Moore, the party’s Senate candidate in Alabama, to quit the race as a fifth woman came forward with allegations Moore had sexual contact with teenage girls decades ago.
Beverly Young Nelson said Moore sexually assaulted her when she was 16 and he was a prosecuting attorney in his 30s. At a New York news conference, the tearful Nelson said Moore groped her, tried to pull her shirt off and shove her head in his lap, then warned that ‘‘noone will believe you’’ if she told anyone.
‘‘I was twisting and struggling and begging him to stop,’’ said Nelson, a waitress at an Alabama restaurant when the incident occurred. ‘‘I had tears running down my face.’’
Moore, a Christian conservative and former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, has refused to withdraw from the race. His campaign released a statement denying ‘‘any sexual misconduct with anyone’’ and saying the new allegations were part of a ‘‘witchhunt’’.
At a news conference in Gallant, Alabama, on Monday night, Moore told reporters Nelson’s accusations were ‘‘absolutely false’’, the Birmingham News reported.
‘‘I never did what she said I did,’’ the newspaper quoted Moore as saying. ‘‘I don’t even know the woman. I don’t know anything about her.’’
McConnell told reporters in his home state of Kentucky party officials were considering whether a Republican writein candidate could be found to challenge Moore in the December 12 special election.
‘‘I think he should step aside,’’ McConnell said.
Republican Senators Orrin Hatch, Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, Todd Young and Cory Gardner joined McConnell in calling for Moore to drop out — a move that could open the door for Democrats to cut into the Republicans’ narrow twoseat Senate majority.
Gardner, head of the Senate Republican campaign arm, said Moore was unfit to serve in the Senate.
Moore (70) had been a heavy favourite to win the election against Democrat Doug Jones. He has denied the allegations first raised in a Washington Post story about his relationships with four women when they were teenagers, including a charge he initiated sexual contact with a 14yearold girl when he was in his 30s.
The state party and many other Alabama Republicans have not wavered in their support of Moore.
The growing furor sets up a confrontation between establishment Republicans and Moore’s supporters in the party’s populist movement led by former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
A Democratic win in Alabama would be a blow to Trump’s agenda and shift the political outlook for next year’s congressional elections, giving Democrats a stronger shot at recapturing control of the Senate.
While making the new allegations, Nelson showed reporters Moore’s signature in her high school yearbook. She said he had offered to give her a ride home one night, then pulled the car behind the restaurant and assaulted her.
‘‘I was terrified,’’ she said. ‘‘I thought he was going to rape me.’’
Nelson said she told her sister about the attack two years later, and eventually told her mother and husband. She said she backed Trump for president and was not coming forward because of politics but because she was inspired by the women who talked to the Post.