Senate

Senate GOP to discuss Moore strategy Wednesday if he wins

by Jordain Carney - 12/12/17 7:15 PM ET

Senate Republicans are preparing to hold a closed-door caucus meeting on Wednesday to discuss what to do about GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore if he wins the special election in Alabama.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, confirmed that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has called a closed-door caucus meeting for 10 a.m.

“I think that’s part of the discussion, yes,” he said, asked by The Hill if Republicans would use the meeting to talk about the outcome of the Alabama special election.

A spokesman for McConnell — asked if Republicans would discuss anything else including their tax bill or government funding strategy during the meeting — declined to comment until after the Alabama Senate race is called.

{mosads}Polls in Alabama will close at 8 p.m. eastern time on Tuesday night.

The impromptu meeting comes as Senate Republicans have been tightlipped about what they will do about Moore if he wins Tuesday’s special election in Alabama.

McConnell and other top GOP senators have predicted that he will face an Ethics Committee investigation after several women came forward and said Moore pursued relationships with them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.

Under a 1960s Supreme Court decision, Republicans are required to seat Moore, who has denied wrongdoing, if he wins.

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has called on the Senate to hold an expulsion vote if Moore wins. But the last time the Senate expelled a member was in 1862 for supporting the Confederacy, and GOP senators haven’t rushed to back Gardner.

GOP senators are also expected to discuss if they want to give Moore committee assignments or invite him into the caucus’s closed-door policy lunches.

McConnell sidestepped a question earlier Tuesday about if he would give Moore a spot on the Senate’s committees.

“All of those are good questions for tomorrow. And we await the outcome of the Alabama Senate race,” he told reporters.

Cornyn noted on Tuesday night that “no judgments” have been made yet on Moore’s fate, but expected it to come up during Wednesday’s meeting.

“I think all of that’s going to be a part of the discussion, but no judgements made [yet],” he said.

A GOP aide noted separately that the decision about whether or not to give Moore committee assignments would be made by the full GOP caucus.

Republicans raced to distance themselves following the allegations against Moore. The former judge, in turn, has also lashed out at McConnell, including refusing to say if he would support him as majority leader.

If Moore wins, he wouldn’t immediately impact the GOP agenda. McConnell noted earlier Tuesday that Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.), whom Moore defeated in the primary, would remain in the Senate until they wrap up their work for the year.

Tags Alabama Alabama Senate special election Cory Gardner John Cornyn Luther Strange Mitch McConnell Mitch McConnell Roy Moore