Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore on Wednesday told Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to “bring it on,” a remark that comes after McConnell said Moore should exit the Senate race over sexual misconduct allegations.
“Dear Mitch McConnell,” Moore wrote on Twitter. “Bring. It. On.”
{mosads}McConnell said earlier this week that he believes the women who have made accusations against Moore and that the former Alabama judge should “step aside.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director, Chris Hansen, appeared to mock Moore over the tweet, saying in a post that, “Bring It On is a movie about high school cheerleaders.”
Numerous GOP senators have rescinded their endorsements of Moore in the aftermath of the allegations, which were first levied against Moore last week in a story in The Washington Post.
Moore has denied the allegation that he had a sexual encounter in 1979 with a 14-year-old girl. He would have been 32 at the time. But the Alabama Republican in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity admitted he may have dated girls in their later teens at that point in his life, but said he did not “remember anything like that.”
The Moore campaign has argued the allegations are politically charged. Moore, who ran his primary campaign as an insurgent candidate fighting against the D.C. establishment, has remained defiant, saying he will not quit the race.
Multiple other women have come forward with various allegations since the original story, including one woman who publicly accused Moore of sexually assaulted her when she was 16.
Moore is the Republican nominee running against Democrat Doug Jones in the special election for the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.