WASHINGTON _ The allegations that Roy Moore made unwanted sexual advances to teenage girls are "very troubling," President Donald Trump's top spokeswoman said Tuesday, but Trump endorsed Moore's campaign anyway because the president wants the Senate seat to go to a fellow Republican.
"The president made that decision, and he decided that it was better to have somebody that supports his agenda than a Democrat that doesn't," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.
"We find the allegations very troubling," Sanders said, but the "people of Alabama" should decide at the ballot box next Tuesday if Moore should be in the Senate.
Sanders also said that if the multiple reports that Moore abused teenage girls are true, Moore "should step aside, but we don't have a way to validate that."
Trump doesn't back all of Moore's positions, Sanders said. Moore has said, for example, that "homosexual conduct should be illegal," a position the president doesn't support.
After keeping Moore at a distance for months, Trump decided to endorse Moore on Monday after speaking with former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who sees Moore as an ally in a push to upend the Republican establishment.
Recent polls have shown Moore neck and neck with Democrat Doug Jones, making the president's support that much more critical in the race.
