Limbaugh: Moore was a Democrat at time of sexual misconduct allegations

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday criticized Republicans for distancing themselves from Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore, while saying that Moore was a Democrat at the time he allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct with teenage girls.

“Did you know that before 1992, when a lot of this was going on, that Judge Moore was a Democrat?” Limbaugh said on his radio show. “Nobody said a word.”

“When he supposedly was attracted to inappropriately-aged girls — he was a Democrat,” Limbaugh added.

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Limbaugh also went after Republicans who have called on Moore to step aside from the race.

“No matter what the real stories are here, and no matter what the evidence is, these guys, these people on the Republican side, are making it clear they are going to prevent this guy from ever being seated in the United States Senate,” Limbaugh said.

Moore earned an appointment to the circuit trial court in Etowah County in 1992 after switching his political affiliation from Democrat to Republican, according to Politico.

Limbaugh’s remarks come after a fifth woman on Monday accused Moore of sexual misconduct when she was a minor.

Beverly Young Nelson said that Moore, who was serving as the Etowah County district attorney, sexually assaulted her in a diner parking lot in 1977, when she was a 16-year-old high school student.

Nelson’s allegations followed those in a bombshell Washington Post report last week in which four woman accused Moore of sexual misconduct, including one who accused Moore of inappropriate touching when she was 14 and he was 32.

Moore has repeatedly denied the allegations, calling them “completely false.”

Prominent Republicans have called on Moore to step aside from the Alabama Senate race to fill Sen. Luther Strange’s seat. Strange was appointed after Jeff Sessions was appointed attorney general.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called for Moore to drop out of the race on Monday while Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), who serves as the chairman of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, said the Senate should expel Moore if he wins the election.