"I'm disappointed that the RNC has resumed its support of Roy Moore," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said. "I think that's a mistake." Senate will have 'tough decision' if Moore wins, Collins says

Sen. Susan Collins said Sunday that it was a “mistake” for the Republican National Committee to reconstitute its support for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, telling CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the Senate “will have a very tough decision to make” if Moore wins Tuesday’s special election.

“I'm disappointed that the RNC has resumed its support of Roy Moore. I think that's a mistake. I would point out that I did not support Mr. Moore even prior to these allegations of sexual misconduct,” Collins (R-Maine) said. “Because I was concerned about his anti-Muslim comments, his anti-LGBT comments, and also, most important of all, he'd been removed twice from the Alabama Supreme Court for failure to follow lawful judicial orders.”


Moore has been accused of sexually assaulting and molesting girls, including one as young as 14, when he was in his 30s and a district attorney in Alabama. He has denied the allegations, but many in the GOP nonetheless called on him to drop his candidacy and step aside. Both the RNC and the National Republican Senatorial Committee severed ties with Moore’s campaign in the days after the allegations first surfaced.

President Donald Trump, too, distanced himself from Moore, saying in a statement that the former chief judge of the Alabama Supreme Court should drop his Senate bid if the allegations against him were true. But Trump came back to Moore last week, endorsing him on Twitter and recording a robocall on his behalf. At a rally Friday in Pensacola, Florida, just across the Alabama state line, Trump implored Alabamians to vote for Moore.

Along with Trump’s support came the support of the RNC, which reengaged its financial support for Moore. But the NRSC has steered clear of Moore, and its chairman, Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, has said he would support expelling Moore from the Senate if he were elected.

Collins stopped short of echoing Gardner in her “Face the Nation” interview but seemed at least open to the idea of removing Moore from the Senate should Alabamians put him there.

“If the allegations are known prior to the election … then we have a very tough decision to make about whether it's our role as senators to overturn the will of the people,” she said. “Now, I think it's a different situation if the allegations are not known, or if they occur while the person is sitting in the Senate.”