GOP strategist: ‘There needs to be a repudiation’ of Roy Moore by Republicans

GOP strategist Steve Schmidt on Friday sounded off on allegations that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore (R) engaged in sexual misconduct with an underage girl, saying there needs to be a “repudiation” of Moore.

“I don’t have the words to express my shame,” Schmidt said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “All in with Chris Hayes.” “It’s disgraceful.”

“What we’re talking about here, Chris, is a 14-year-old little girl. Roy Moore is a pedophile. He’s a child molester,” Schmidt said.

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Schmidt, who served as the campaign manager for Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 2008 presidential bid, also said Republican senators withdrawing their endorsements of Moore weren’t doing enough.

“There needs to be a repudiation, not just a rescission of an endorsement,” Schmidt said. “He should be called on to get out of the race.”

“Shame on Mitch McConnell, shame on Paul Ryan for not speaking out, not doing the right thing here,” he continued. “Shame on them.”

In a bombshell report in The Washington Post on Thursday, Moore was accused of initiating sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl in 1979, when he was 32.

Leigh Corfman, now 53, said she and Moore interacted on two occasions after meeting. During the first, she said the two kissed. During the second, she said Moore removed his clothes, took off her shirt and pants, and touched her over her bra and underpants, according to the Post.

Corfman said the two did not have intercourse.

The newspaper also found three other women who said that Moore had approached them around a similar time, when they were between the ages of 16 and 18.

A number of Republicans including, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.) have called for Moore to drop out of the race if the allegations are true.

Two GOP senators withdrew their endorsements of Moore on Friday night after one of them, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), requested to be removed from Moore’s fundraising pitches following the allegations.

Moore has denied the allegations, saying they are “completely false.”