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Groton Daily Independent
Saturday, Nov. 114, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 125 ~ 40 of 66
The GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney condemned his colleagues’ caveat — “only if the allegations are true.”
“Innocent until proven guilty is for criminal convictions, not elections. I believe Leigh Corfman,” he said of the Alabama woman who said Moore molested her when she was 14. “Her account is too serious to ignore. Moore is un t for of ce and should step aside.”
Facing a tough re-election, Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., likened Moore to Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, former Rep. Anthony Weiner and former Fox News executive Roger Ailes, all men accused of sexual misconduct.
“The defense from some of his supporters is beyond disgusting,” Comstock wrote. “Moore should not serve in the U.S. Senate.”
Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Steve Daines, R-Mont., withdrew their endorsements.
Yet there is no sign Moore is going away quietly. And the Alabama secretary of state’s of ce reported that it’s too late to remove his name from the ballot.
The Republican Party’s options, including the possibility of a write-in campaign, “are all being researched,” said Steven Law, who leads the pro-Republican Senate Leadership Fund.
Those who think Moore should be replaced have little hope of that happening.
“I don’t think anyone expects Roy Moore to drop out of this race,” Law said. “I think he enjoys being an object of intense controversy. The fact that this has happened may make him even more committed.” Moore was twice removed from his state Supreme Court position, once for disobeying a federal court order to remove a 5,200-pound (2,359-kilogram) granite Ten Commandments monument from the lobby of the state judicial building and later for urging state probate judges to defy the U.S. Supreme Court
decision that legalized gay marriage.
He also previously said homosexuality should be illegal, and last week he refused to back off comments
that Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., should not be allowed to serve in Congress because he’s a Muslim. Virtually the entire Republican establishment — including Trump — opposed Moore’s primary bid in
September.
On Saturday, Trump de ected questions about whether Moore should drop out of the race.
The Republican president, who’s in Asia, said he’s been too busy reading documents and hasn’t had
time to catch up on television news coverage about Moore. He referred back to a written statement that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read to reporters earlier that said Trump believes Moore will “do the right thing and step aside” if the allegations are true.
In Friday’s radio interview, Moore cast the Post story as an effort by Democrats — “and maybe even establishment Republicans” — to undermine his campaign. He also mentioned an effort to investigate his accusers.
“We’re also doing an investigation and we have some evidence of some collusion here, but we’re not ready to put that to the public just yet,” he said without elaboration.
Democrats, meanwhile, were quietly stepping up their mobilization efforts in Alabama, though being careful not to publicly ignite partisan backlash by attempting to capitalize on the troubling allegations.
Democratic candidate Doug Jones stood to gain advantage in places where Moore had shown weakness in past statewide elections. Some Republicans conceded that Moore would likely suffer in the state’s reli- ably, mainstream-Republican suburbs.
“It’s a bad situation,” said Henry Barbour, a Republican National Committeeman from neighboring Mis- sissippi. “Do people nd it believable? If they do, he will lose.”
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Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writers Alan Fram in Washington, Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and Brynn Anderson in Altoona contributed to this report.