Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that he believes the women who claim Roy Moore dated them when they were minors, adding that the Alabama Republican Senate candidate should step aside.
“I believe the women,” McConnell said at a press conference in Louisville. “I think he should step aside.”
The Washington Post first reported last Thursday on the four women who said that Moore pursued them when they were teenagers.
One of the women, Leigh Corfman, said that she had a sexual encounter with Moore when she was 14 and he was 32.
Alabama law would not allow the Republican Party to have a new candidate on the ballot should Moore step aside. Instead, a write-in campaign would have to occur.
However, Moore so far has made it clear he intends to stay in the race. “The person who should step aside is [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell. He has failed conservatives and must be replaced,” Moore tweeted in response to McConnell’s comments Monday.
The former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice defeated incumbent Sen. Luther Strange in the Republican primary. Strange was supported by McConnell who warned in early October about supporting anti-establishment candidates.
“You have to nominate people who can actually win because winners make policy and losers go home,” McConnell said.
Immediately after the Washington Post report broke, polling showed the Alabama race all tied up.
Updated at 1:13 pm with Moore’s response.