
Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is calling for US Senate candidate Roy Moore to step down from the race in Alabama in the wake of a Washington Post report that detailed an allegation that Moore initiated sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl in the 1970s.
In a tweet, Romney called Moore “unfit for office” and said he believed the accuser, Alabama resident Leigh Corfman.
Innocent until proven guilty is for criminal convictions, not elections. I believe Leigh Corfman. Her account is too serious to ignore. Moore is unfit for office and should step aside.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) November 10, 2017
Moore has denied the allegations in the Washington Post report. The story, published Thursday, quoted Corfman as saying Moore had sexual contact with her when she was 14 years old and he was 32.
Three other women interviewed by the Post said Moore, now 70, also approached them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s. None of the other women said Moore forced them into any sort of relationship or sexual contact.
Moore, a hardline Christian conservative who was twice removed from the Alabama Supreme Court bench, has sent fund-raising appeals in the wake of the Post report.
Moore wrote that in the appeal that he has “a duty to stand up and fight back against the forces of evil waging an all-out war on our conservative values.”
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.