Before all the votes are even counted in Tuesday’s special U.S. Senate election in Alabama, GOP lawmakers are planning to meet to decide whether Roy Moore should be allowed to serve if he ends up pulling out a win.
According to NBC News, the meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
JUST IN: Senate Republicans have been told they will meet tomorrow morning as a conference to discuss next steps if Roy Moore wins tonight, multiple sources tell @NBCNEWS. The meeting is currently scheduled for 10am in the Capitol, but timing could shift.
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) December 12, 2017
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It’s not clear exactly what options Republicans plan to discuss when it comes to Moore, but it is apparent that GOP lawmakers want to be seen as putting distance between themselves and an accused child molester.
Moore could eke out a victory in Alabama, sure, but if Republicans want to compete nationally, they know they can’t associate themselves with a man who’s been credibly accused of preying on teenage girls when he was in his 30s.
As the Wall Street Journal noted a short time ago, one tool Congress could use to eventually force Moore out of Congress is an ethics investigation, which “could result in a vote to expel Mr. Moore, though there is a debate among GOP lawmakers over the appropriateness of such an investigation because Alabama voters would have picked the senator after the allegations were public.”
For Republicans, though, it’s going to take more than meetings and publicity stunts to remove the stain that men like Roy Moore and Donald Trump have put on the party. They must take real, meaningful action to ensure that sexual predators don’t have a seat in U.S. Congress.
That starts with removing Moore from office if he is victorious on Tuesday night – and Trump soon after.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.