NRSC exits fundraising agreement with Roy Moore's campaign
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is breaking financial ties with Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore, after explosive allegations that Moore had a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old and pursued three other teenagers when he was in his 30s.
The Friday move by the NRSC is the first major financial tie severed in Moore's campaign, although a number of Republican senators have distanced themselves from him in statements. According to a Friday Federal Election Commission filing, first reported by The Daily Beast, a joint fundraising agreement for Moore's election efforts no longer lists the NRSC, listing only the Alabama Republican Party and the Republican National Committee along with the Judge Roy Moore for U.S. Senate campaign. Previously, the Alabama 2017 Senate Victory Committee also included the NRSC.
On Thursday, The Washington Post published a story in which four women accused Moore of sexually or romantically pursuing them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. The youngest accuser at the time, Leigh Corfman, said she was 14 when Moore gave her alcohol, took off his clothes and her clothes, touched her over her bra and "guided her hand to touch him over his underwear," according to the Post.
The allegations rocked Capitol Hill, with a number of GOP senators saying Moore should drop out of the allegations are true. NRSC Chairman Cory Gardner, R-Colorado, called the allegations "deeply troubling."
"The allegations against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore are deeply troubling," Gardner told reporters Thursday. "… If these allegations are found to be true, Roy Moore must drop out of the Alabama special Senate election."
The Moore story places Republicans in a difficult position politically, as appears to be too late per Alabama state law to replace Moore on the ballot ahead of December's general election against Democrat Doug Jones. A handful of local officials in Alabama are defending Moore, placing them at odds with the broader sentiment in the national GOP.
