Three weeks after the Republican National Committee cut ties with Roy Moore, after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers, the group is supporting him again, according to a senior RNC official.

The reversal came just hours after Donald Trump announced his endorsement of the Alabama Republican, who is running for the Senate seat vacated by the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, urging Moore in a phone call: “Go get ’em, Roy.”

In November, the RNC pulled out of a joint fundraising agreement with Moore after two women came forward to allege that he had sexually assaulted them when they were teenagers. Leigh Corfman told the Washington Post Moore made her touch his genitals when she was 14 and, in a press conference, Beverly Young Nelson claimed that Moore assaulted her in a car, grabbed her breasts and forced her head down towards his crotch.

Other women said that Moore either dated them or tried to date them when they were teenagers.

The Senate candidate has denied the allegations and painted them as part of a conspiracy that includes “lesbians, gays, bisexuals and socialists”.

The news, first reported by the rightwing website Breitbart, came shortly after the Washington Post reported that Debbie Wesson Gibson, who said she dated Moore when she was 17 years old, produced new evidence of their involvement, including a signed high school yearbook.

Gibson said her relationship with Moore was proper but said she felt compelled to share the documentation after he claimed he did not know any of the women who came forward.

The Moore campaign said in response to the new allegations: “Roy Moore already said he knew Debbie Wesson and her family but did not recall any formal dates. Furthermore, when he stated that he did not know any of the women, he was referring to those who accused him of sexual assault.”

The campaign went on to claim that the Washington Post was trying to undermine their candidate and “write yet another story to distract from Doug Jones’ extremist liberal record”.

Moore said at a campaign event last week in Alabama: “I do not know any of these women, did not date any of these women and have not engaged in any sexual misconduct with anyone.”

He had previously said in an interview with Sean Hannity of Gibson: “I know her but I don’t remember going out on dates. I knew her as a friend.”

Moore also said in that interview, “I don’t remember ever dating any girl without the permission of her mother.”

Although the RNC reversed its decision not to back Moore, other prominent Republicans have yet to embrace him.

Richard Shelby, Alabama’s incumbent Republican senator, told reporters last week that he had written in an alternative candidate instead of voting for Moore. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, majority leader Mitch McConnell’s political arm, is still refusing to back Moore.

The Moore campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the RNC’s renewed involvement in the race.



Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential nominee whose niece is the RNC chair, tweeted earlier on Monday: “Roy Moore in the US Senate would be a stain on the GOP and on the nation. Leigh Corfman and other victims are courageous heroes. No vote, no majority is worth losing our honor, our integrity.”



Moore was also accused of making antisemitic remarks on Monday, after reportedly criticising the billionaire philanthropist George Soros in an interview with the Christian evangelical radio network American Family Radio.

According to an apparent transcript of the interview posted by a Los Angeles-based Fox News producer, Dan Gallo, Moore described Soros’s agenda as “not American culture” and said he “comes from another world that I don’t identify with”.

According to Gallo, Moore went on to say: “No matter how much money he’s got, he’s still going to the same place that people who don’t recognize God and morality and accept his salvation are going.”

The election for the Alabama Senate seat will be held on 12 December. Polls currently show Moore in a tight race against Democrat Doug Jones.