Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said "the ethics committee will have to consider the matters that have been litigated in the campaign should that particular candidate win." | Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images McConnell on Moore: 'I'm going to let the people of Alabama make the call'

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday shifted his tone on allowing Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore to serve in the Senate if elected.

Multiple women have accused Moore, who is facing Democrat Doug Jones in the Dec. 12 special election to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions, of making sexual advances on them when they were teenagers. When the allegations first appeared, McConnell said he believed the women and said Moore should drop out of the contest.


"I'm going to let the people of Alabama make the call," McConnell said on ABC's "This Week." He said he thought the Senate Ethics Committee would handle the allegations against Moore if he is elected: "The ethics committee will have to consider the matters that have been litigated in the campaign should that particular candidate win."

Other GOP senators, including National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Cory Gardner, have said Moore should be expelled from the Senate if elected. President Donald Trump has also said the decision should be left to the people of Alabama, and he has cast doubt on Moore's accusers.

McConnell's comments came the same morning CBS News and YouGov released a poll showing Moore leading Jones, 49 percent to 43 percent.

The poll found that 71 percent of Alabama Republicans say the allegations against Moore are false. The poll used a sample of 1,067 registered voters in Alabama from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1. The margin of error based upon the entire sample is plus or minus 3.8 percent and for likely voters is plus or minus 4.8 percent.