Campaign

GOP senator asks to be taken off Moore fundraising appeals

by Ben Kamisar - 11/10/17 10:19 AM ET

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has requested to be removed from Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore’s fundraising pitches after a Thursday investigative report from the Washington Post detailed accusations of inappropriate sexual conduct between a 32-year-old Moore and a minor.

Moore released a fundraising pitch featuring Lee on Thursday just hours after The Washington Post story quoted a woman who charged that Moore touched her over her underwear and tried to get her to do the same to him when she was 14 years old. Three other women also told the Post Moore pursued relationships with them when they were teenagers and he was in his mid-30s.

The fundraising pitch attempted to discredit the allegations and included pictures of Lee, as well as Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

Lee’s office told The Hill on Friday that the Moore campaign never asked to use the senator’s image and that their office had requested that Moore take it down. Spokespeople for Cruz and Paul have not returned a request to comment from The Hill.

As of Friday morning, the senators’ pictures still appear on the online link to Moore’s fundraising appeal.

Ted Cruz out with a statement calling on Moore to “immediately withdraw” if allegations are true, according to @TexasTribAbby. But Moore is still fundraising using images of Cruz, Rand Paul and Mike Lee as recently as this afternoon: https://t.co/wRsEb1MGWD pic.twitter.com/nZdvrnZ9YW

— Ben Kamisar (@bkamisar) November 9, 2017

The three senators had been some of Moore’s most high-profile endorsement until the revelations surfaced. Both Cruz and Lee told reporters that Moore should step down from the nomination if the allegations are true. Staffers for Paul, who’s recovering after having his ribs broken in an attack, didn’t return a request for comment.

Tags Mike Lee Rand Paul Ted Cruz