McSally on Moore running for Senate again: ‘This place has enough creepy old men’

Senate Republicans threw cold water on the prospect of another Senate bid by Roy Moore, who announced his candidacy Thursday, according to Politico.

“Give me a break. This place has enough creepy old men,” Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) told the publication in response to Moore’s announcement.

{mosads}Moore won the Republican primary for the seat in 2017, beating former Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, who was backed by the state party and President Trump.

However, he narrowly lost to Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) in a December special election following a series of allegations from women who accused him of sexual misconduct when they were teens and, in several cases, underage. Moore has denied all the allegations.

“The people of Alabama are smarter than that,” Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), who is also on the ballot in 2020 and considered one of the most vulnerable Republican senators, told the publication. “They certainly didn’t choose him last time, why would they choose him this time?”

Gardner, the then-chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, vowed in 2017 not to seat Moore if he won.

“There will be a lot of efforts made to ensure that we have a nominee other than him and one who can win in November,” Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) told Politico. “He’s already proven he can’t.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who implied after the allegations broke in 2017 that he would expel Moore from the Senate, said Thursday he would “oppose him in every way.”

President Trump and his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. have both also blasted Moore’s decision to run again, with the younger Trump tweeting Thursday that the decision was “doing a disservice to all conservatives.”

McSally testified in March that she was sexually assaulted by a superior officer during her time in the Air Force and has frequently spoken out on the issue.