Roy Moore does not intend to drop out of the Alabama Senate race for anyone, according to his campaign adviser – not even the President.
Senior campaign adviser Brett Doster has claimed that a Washington Post story accusing Mr Moore of sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old was nothing more than a political hit job. He told ABC that new information would reveal that the story was “leaked by political opponents" and that the reporting was "an overly aggressive attempt by the Washington Post to create a fictional story”.
Asked if Mr Moore would step aside if Donald Trump asked, Mr Doster replied: "No. Nothing is getting him out. He's not going anywhere."
The Post reported last week on one woman’s claims that Mr Moore – then an Etowah County assistant district attorney – had touched her inappropriately when she was 14 and he was 32. Mr Moore has denied the accusation.
The Post also interviewed two other women who said they dated Mr Moore when he was in his thirties and they were under the age of 18. Mr Moore has said he does not remembering dating these women.
The news caused at least 15 Republican senators to urge Mr Moore to drop out, if the allegations were true. Republican Governors Larry Hogan and John Kasich both said the candidate should drop out immediately.
The White House has yet to release a statement on the issue. Kellyanne Conway, a counsellor to the President, has joined those saying that Mr Moore should step down if the allegations are accurate. She called the Post report “disturbing” and said it “offends me greatly as a woman; as a mother of three young girls”.
She added, however, that it would be “a very dangerous precedent for any of us – for any person in this country – to just be cast aside as guilty because of press reports.”
“Mr. Moore has denied that conduct," she said. "I think you've got other people are out there talking about what did or did not happen many years ago."
Mr Moore, meanwhile, has shown no intention of dropping out of the race. At a campaign event on Sunday, Mr Moore promised more information about “the motivations and the content” of the Post article. He added that he did not intend to let established Republicans derail his campaign.
"We fully expect the people of Alabama to see through this charade,” he said. “And we will continue our efforts."
Recent polling shows Mr Moore has lost his once-comfortable lead over Democratic opponent Doug Jones. A third of the voters surveyed, however, said the sexual misconduct allegations made no difference to them.
