The Latest: Trump _ Moore will step aside if charges true
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on Roy Moore, the GOP nominee for Senate in Alabama (all times local):
12:45 a.m.
The White House says President Donald Trump believes Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore "will do the right thing and step aside" if sexual misconduct allegations against him are true.
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters traveling with Trump in Asia that the president believes a "mere allegation" - especially one from many years ago - shouldn't be allowed to destroy a person's life.
But Sanders says: "The president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside."
The Washington Post reported Thursday that an Alabama woman said Moore had sexual contact with her when she was 14 and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney.
The Moore campaign denied the report as "the very definition of fake news and intentional defamation.
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10:30 p.m.
Steve Bannon is slamming The Washington Post as part of the "opposition party" after the newspaper reported allegations of sexual misconduct by Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.
Bannon, President Donald Trump's former chief strategist, was among Moore's most vocal supporters this fall. He referenced the Alabama controversy only briefly during an appearance Thursday night in New Hampshire.
Bannon is calling the Post an "apparatus of the Democratic Party" and notes it was among the first to report the "Access Hollywood" tape that caught Trump using sexually predatory language in 2005.
Bannon asks, "Now is that a coincidence? That's what I mean when I say opposition party."
The Post reported Thursday that an Alabama woman said Moore, then a 32-year-old assistant district attorney, had sexual contact with her when she was 14.
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8:50 p.m.
Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama is facing lurid allegations of sexual misconduct with minors decades ago - and an immediate backlash from party leaders demanding he get out of the race if the accusations prove true.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that an Alabama woman said Moore, then a 32-year-old assistant district attorney, had sexual contact with her when she was 14. Three other women interviewed by the Post said Moore, now 70, approached them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s.
The Moore campaign is denying the Post report as "the very definition of fake news and intentional defamation."
Moore himself has issued a fundraising appeal asking for emergency donations in a "spiritual battle."
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5:35 p.m.
Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore is telling potential donors in a new fundraising pitch that "the forces of evil are on the march in our country."
Moore is appealing for donations in his race for a Senate seat from Alabama just hours after the Washington Post reported allegations that Moore had sexual contact with a woman when she was 14 and he was 32. His campaign has called the report fake news.
In the fundraising plea, Moore says "the Obama-Clinton Machine's liberal media lapdogs just launched the most vicious and nasty round of attacks against me I've EVER faced."
Moore says he refuses to repeat their lies, and he's counting on the help of "God-fearing conservatives like you to stand with me at this critical moment."
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3:05 p.m.
Senate candidate Roy Moore's campaign is calling allegations of sexual misconduct "the very definition of fake news and intentional defamation."
The campaign released a statement on Thursday after The Washington Post reported the Alabama Republican candidate had sexual contact with one teenager and pursued three others nearly four decades ago.
The campaign says, "Judge Roy Moore has endured the most outlandish attacks on any candidate in the modern political arena, but this story in today's Washington Post alleging sexual impropriety takes the cake."
The statement also notes that Moore has been married to the same woman for 33 years and has four children and five grandchildren.
It continues: "After over 40 years of public service, if any of these allegations were true, they would have been made public long before now."
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3 p.m.
It's too late for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore's name to be removed from the ballot, even if he wants to drop out.
That's according to John Bennett, a spokesman for the Alabama secretary of state.
Bennett says the party and candidate can revoke the Republican's nomination, but his name would appear regardless, because a key deadline has already passed. Bennett says In such a scenario, even if Moore earned more votes than the Democrat, the state canvassing board would declare the Democrat the winner.
Several senior Republicans called on Moore to quit the race after The Washington Post reported allegations of sexual misconduct.
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2:25 p.m.
The top Senate Republican says if the report about Alabama candidate Roy Moore and sexual contact with a 14-year-old is true, he should drop out of the race.
In a one-sentence statement Thursday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says: "If these allegations are true, he must step aside."
The response was swift from Senate Republicans shortly after The Washington Post story about Moore initiating a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl several decades ago.
Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado says, "The allegations against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore are deeply troubling." Gardner chairs the Republican senatorial campaign committee. He adds, "If these allegations are found to be true, Roy Moore must drop out of the Alabama special Senate election."
Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Jeff Flake of Arizona echoed those comments, and No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn of Texas calls the report "deeply troubling."
The election is Dec. 12.
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2:22 p.m.
An Alabama woman says Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for next month's U.S. Senate election, made inappropriate advances and had sexual contact with her when she was 14, according to a Washington Post story Thursday. The Senate's GOP leader said if the report is shown to be true, Moore must step aside.
The woman, Leigh Corfman, says Moore met her several times when he was a local prosecutor in his 30s and at one point drove her to his home where he touched her over her underwear and guided her hand to touch him over his, the Post reported. They did not have sexual intercourse, the Post said.
Aside from Corfman, three other women interviewed by the Post in recent weeks said Moore pursued them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s. None of the other women said that Moore forced them into any sort of relationship or sexual contact.