REVERSAL

The RNC Resumes Helping Roy Moore

GOP had pulled funding from Senate candidate after multiple women accused him of misconduct.

The Republican National Committee is jumping back into the Alabama U.S. Senate election on behalf of Roy Moore, an RNC official confirmed to The Daily Beast. The news was first reported by Breitbart. The decision by the committee to put money and staff behind the Moore campaign comes hours after President Donald Trump formally endorsed the Senate candidate, who has been accused by multiple women of having sexually preyed on them when they were teenagers. A party committee normally follows the directives of its leader. But the RNC’s decision signals a remarkable reversal for the committee. The RNC has been hypercritical of Democrats for any ties they have to men facing harassment allegations, having pressed lawmakers to return campaign contributions from, among others, Harvey Weinstein. After the first allegations emerged against Moore, the RNC cut off its own fundraising ties with the Moore campaign. “The recent allegations against Judge Moore are deeply troubling,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney-McDaniel said at the time. “He should step aside if there is any truth to them at all.” The RNC’s reversal came on the same day that Mitt Romney, the chairwoman’s uncle and the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, denounced Moore and said there was no place for him in the party. — Sam Stein