Alabama's Sen. Shelby slams Moore

WASHINGTON -- Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, Alabama's senior member of Congress, strongly condemned his party's candidate, Roy Moore, on Sunday as the contentious campaign for the state's open Senate seat nears its end.

"The state of Alabama deserves better," Shelby said on CNN's State of the Union, citing the accusations of impropriety against Moore by multiple women. Shelby said he has already voted absentee and that he cast a write-in ballot for "a distinguished Republican" he declined to name.

Alabamians vote Tuesday in a special election for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, now the U.S. attorney general. Shelby, 83, had said earlier in the campaign that he couldn't support Moore. Yet doing so again on national television in such strong terms -- and less than 48 hours before voters go to the polls -- represented a dramatic and last-minute twist in a race that has whipsawed Alabama voters for months.

Moore, 70, won a primary election in August against Luther Strange, who'd been appointed to fill the seat on an interim basis. In recent weeks, Moore's been accused of initiating a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old, sexually assaulting a 16-year-old, and romantically pursuing other teenage girls when he was in his 30s.

"I understand we would like to retain that seat in the U.S. Senate," said Shelby, who has served in the upper chamber for 30 years.

"But I tell you what, there's a time, we call it a tipping point," Shelby continued. "I think, so many accusations, so many cuts, so many drip, drip, drip. When it got to the 14-year-old's story, that was enough for me."

The senator has long opposed Moore, saying a month ago that he would "absolutely not" vote for the embattled candidate. As for whether many other Republicans will follow Shelby and back a write-in candidate, he said that "I think a lot of people could do that," but added: "Will they do that? I don't know."

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, however, said he already cast his vote for Moore.

"I have stated both publicly and privately over the last month that unless these allegations were proven to be true I would continue to plan to vote for the Republican nominee, Judge Roy Moore," Merrill wrote in a text message to The Associated Press. "I have already cast my absentee ballot and I voted for Judge Moore."

In making his comments, Shelby directly clashed with President Donald Trump, who has urged voters to support Moore despite the drumbeat of accusations -- many of which date to a period when Moore was a local district attorney in the 1970s and 1980s.

Trump staged a rally in Pensacola, Fla., close to the Alabama border on Friday night, and he tweeted his support for Moore on Saturday. The president also recorded a pro-Moore robocall expected to go out to voters today, Politico reported.

A fellow Southern Republican, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, chimed in Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, appearing to support Moore's accusers and underscoring the chaos that the former judge's candidacy has created for the national Republican Party.

Scott said "the allegations are significantly stronger than the denial" when it came to the accounts provided by Moore's accusers. If Moore wins, Scott added, "there will immediately be an ethics investigation."

Moore, for his part, said a victory Tuesday would be the end of the story.

"When this race is over, on the 12th of December, it will be over," Moore said in his first sit-down interview since Dec. 4.

"I've stood up for moral values, so they're attacking me in that way," he said.

Moore has spoken inconsistently about the allegations against him, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity last month that he may have dated young girls years ago -- with parental permission -- but that he did not know any of the women who have accused him of making unwanted advances when he was in his 30s and they were teenagers.

As he has said repeatedly in a small number of public appearances since the stories broke last month, Moore suggested that his accusers are part of a smear campaign. He claimed incorrectly that they had participated in attack ads run against him. Several accusers have given TV interviews, but only their photographs have appeared in the spots aired by Democratic nominee Doug Jones.

"It's inconceivable to think that someone would wait 40 years because they were embarrassed or ashamed or something, and then less than 30 days before the general election, come out and make allegations -- and then appear on a political advertisement, when they've waited 40 years not to be embarrassed," Moore said.

Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine, said on Sunday that she was "disappointed" that the Republican National Committee had resumed support for Moore after earlier distancing itself.

Collins said that even before the sexual harassment allegations, she was concerned about Moore's history of anti-Muslim and anti-gay rhetoric and of his having twice been removed from his post as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for failing to follow lawful judicial orders.

Sen. Cory Gardner, the Coloradan who is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has said that if Moore wins, the Senate should expel him.

Shelby declined to say if he would support such an effort but said he believes Moore would immediately face an ethics committee investigation.

"I think that the Senate has to look at who is fit to serve in the Senate," Shelby said.

Rep. Terri Sewell, the only Democrat representing Alabama in Congress, said Sunday that the direction Moore represented was clear. If elected, she said, he would "harken us back to the days of segregation."

Speaking on ABC's This Week, she said she felt there was no reason not to believe the women who had come forward to accuse Moore of misconduct.

"When Roy Moore -- if he should win -- goes to Washington, we will always be questioning his character," Sewell said.

Dean Young, a political strategist for Moore, downplayed comments that his candidate would immediately face an ethics committee investigation if elected.

"I highly doubt there's going to be a Senate investigation," Young said Sunday on ABC's This Week. "But if there is, Judge Moore's going to be found telling the truth, just like he always has."

Young said the race is "ground zero" for Trump because if Alabama residents vote for "this liberal Democrat" Doug Jones, they're voting against the president they helped put in office and his agenda.

Despite the allegations, Moore isn't being abandoned by worshippers at Montgomery's Perry Hill Road Baptist Church, where Moore spoke at a "God and Country" rally in September before the accusations arose.

Kevin Mims, who attends services at the church, said he didn't believe the claims against Moore. But even if true, he said, they occurred long ago, and Moore is a conservative who stands "on the word of God."

"Everyone has to vote their convictions," said Mims. "My conviction is he's the right man for the job."

Lines aren't so clearly defined elsewhere.

Interviews with a dozen parishioners at Mobile's Ashland Place United Methodist Church, the home church of Sessions, turned up neither any Moore defenders nor confirmed votes for Jones. The prevailing mood seemed to be one of frustration over having to choose between a Republican with Moore's baggage and any Democrat.

"I will vote for Judge Moore," said Bill Prine of Mobile. "I'm not a fan of his, but I'll have to stick with the Republicans."

Information for this article was contributed by Michael Riley and Mark Niquette of Bloomberg News; by Steve Peoples, Kim Chandler, Jay Reeves and Bill Barrow of The Associated Press; by Nicholas Fandos and Emily Cochrane of The New York Times; and by David Weigel of The Washington Post.

A Section on 12/11/2017

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