White House aides walk tightrope on Roy Moore, refusing to denounce him or his accusers

Donovan Slack | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption White House: Alabama to decide Roy Moore's fate The White House says President Donald Trump believes the voters of Alabama should decide Roy Moore's fate and finds the allegations against the Republican Senate candidate 'very troubling.' (Nov. 16)

WASHINGTON — White House aides continued to walk a tightrope Sunday over Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, highlighting their concerns about sexual misconduct allegations against him but stopping short of joining fellow Republicans who have called for Moore to withdraw from the Senate race.

White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said he believes the nine women who have come forward to accuse Moore of inappropriate conduct or assault are “credible,” but he stopped short of condemning Moore.

“The allegations are very serious, and they should be taken very seriously,” Mulvaney said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “But ultimately these are up to the voters in the state.”

White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short said President Trump also thinks the accusers are credible.

“If he did not believe that the women's accusations were credible he would be down campaigning for Roy Moore. He has not done that,” Short said on ABC's This Week. "He has concerns about the accusations, but he is also concerned that these accusations are 38 years old. Roy Moore has been in public service for decades, and the accusations did not arise until a month before election."

Republican leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have called for Moore to drop out of the race, but Trump has not. The president, however, has seized on allegations last week that Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., inappropriately kissed and groped a Los Angeles radio host.

"I think one of the significant differences there... is that Franken admits it and Roy Moore denies it," Mulvaney said. "So I do think that puts them in two different categories."

The Franken revelations fueled further calls for action on Capitol Hill, where the Senate passed a resolution two weeks ago requiring senators and their staff to take training to prevent sexual harassment.

In the House, Reps. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., and Jackie Speier, D-Calif., are leading a push for reforms. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., said Sunday that she never intended to have a “#MeToo moment” when she revealed Friday that a “prominent person” had tried to put his hand up her skirt and she had been subject to unwanted advances from U.S. Senator decades ago.

“I got a lot of ugly comments” after the revelations, she said on Meet the Press. But she said she has also been contacted by young women with similar stories.

“I don’t know a woman that doesn’t have a story in all places across the country,” Dingell said.

Dingell called for women and men across the country to come together to fix the culture.

“Let’s really make this a watershed moment,” she said.

Comstock said she believes Moore should drop out of the Alabama race.

“For that matter, Al Franken can go hit the door with him,” she said.

Franken issued an apology after the model-turned radio host, Leeann Tweeden, went public Thursday and said he would cooperate with a Senate Ethics Committee investigation of the incident.

Moore has denied the allegations that he made inappropriate advances on teenagers, and refused to leave the race. Polls show that since his accusers came forward, first in the Washington Post a few weeks ago, his support has cratered and he is now tied with Democratic candidate Doug Jones, according to the RealClearPolitics average. He had been considered a shoe-in to win the special election scheduled December 12 to replace Jeff Sessions, who left the Senate to become Trump's attorney general.

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