Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday he believes the women who accused Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of making sexual advances when they were teenagers and said Moore should “step aside.”
McConnell’s admission that he “believes the women” and his definitive call for Moore to remove himself from contention breaks from statements he made last week in which he hedged, saying that Moore should step aside only if the allegations are true.
BREAKING: Senate leader Mitch McConnell says he believes women who have accused Roy Moore of inappropriate sexual contact, says Moore “should step aside.”
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 13, 2017
McConnell’s statement comes hours after news broke that a fifth accuser will step forward Monday afternoon to recount allegations that Moore sexually harassed her as a teenager. The unknown accuser will present the allegations during a press conference in New York City while accompanied by high profile defense attorney Gloria Allred.
Moore, a firebrand religious conservative running to take Attorney General Jeff Sessions former seat, was accused of undressing and groping a 14 year old girl as a 32 year old assistant district attorney, in a bombshell Washington Post report published Thursday.
GOP leadership and President Donald Trump maintained Moore’s presumption of innocence in statements made in the immediate aftermath of the allegations.
“Like most Americans, the president does not believe we can allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person’s life. However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Friday.
Certain high profile Republicans including former presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake decided to forego the “if true” stipulations, calling for Moore’s immediate resignation.
“The allegations against Roy Moore are deeply disturbing and disqualifying,” McCain said. “He should immediately step aside and allow the people of Alabama to elect a candidate they can be proud of.”
Regardless of whether Moore decides to step aside, his name will likely remain on the ballot as they have already been printed, The Daily Caller News Foundation learned Thursday.
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