GOP Senator to Moore: ‘Tell the truth’

Republican Sen. John Kennedy (La.) in a Wednesday interview urged Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore to “tell the truth,” but stopped short of altogether calling on the former judge to exit the race amid various sexual misconduct allegations.

“If I had a few minutes with Mr. Moore, I would tell him to tell the truth,” Kennedy told MSNBC’s “Meet the Press Daily.” “Just look the American people and the people of Alabama in the eye and tell the truth. And if it’s the truth, then be prepared to be accountable for it.”

Kennedy said he expects Moore to face an ethics charge in the Senate should Alabama elect him to the upper chamber.

But unlike other senators, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Kennedy denied answering whether or not he found the recent accusations levied against Moore credible.

“I don’t want to get into credibility. I want to wait until there’s a full investigation, and then I’ll make a judgment about the facts and the credibility at that time,” he said.

The Louisiana lawmaker said Moore should exit the race if the accusations are true. While many Republican senators initially said the same, several have called on Moore to step out of the race altogether. McConnell has said he believes the women accusing Moore of sexual misconduct.

In a story published last week in The Washington Post, a 53-year-old woman said that in 1979 she had a sexual encounter with Moore when she was 14. Moore would have been 32 at the time. Moore has denied this accusation.

The Post also included accounts from three women who said Moore made advances toward them during a similar time frame, when they were between 16 and 18 years old. Moore in an interview last week admitted he may have dated women in their late teens, but that he did not “remember anything like that.”

Three more women this week have come forward with sexual misconduct allegations against Moore. One woman publicly alleged on Monday that Moore sexually assaulted her when she was 16. An attorney for Moore on Wednesday sought to discredit this accusation, calling for a yearbook purportedly containing Moore’s signature in the accuser’s yearbook to be released for handwriting evaluation.

Two women who spoke to AL.com also detailed encounters with Moore, one who said he groped her and another who said the former judge asked her out on a date when she was 17.

Moore is the Republican nominee in Alabama’s special Senate election, in which he is running against Democrat Doug Jones.