Graham on Moore: ‘We are about to give away a seat’ key to Trump’s agenda

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday said Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore poses a threat to the Republican agenda, adding that he favors maneuvering that would trigger a new special election.

“We’re about to give away a seat that can determine the future of Trump’s agenda, and I hope the good people of Alabama on the Republican side will try to find a way to pick a nominee that can represent the conservative cause in an effective way,” Graham said on Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show.”

Moore is under pressure from numerous Republican lawmakers to step down from the race. He faces allegations of sexual misconduct, including assault, from multiple women, most of whom were teenagers at the time.

Moore has been defiant, refusing to drop out of the race for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s former seat and calling the allegations an effort by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to steal the election from Alabama voters.

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Graham said he’s in favor of any maneuvering to get a new nominee on the ticket in Alabama, including an idea that’s been floated wherein Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.), who was appointed to the Senate after Sessions was confirmed as attorney general, resigns, triggering a new special election to fill the vacant seat.

“It’s so important to me that we succeed,” Graham said in the interview.

“This Jones guy’s not going to help us on anything that Trump wants to do,” he added, referring to Moore’s Democratic opponent, Doug Jones.

Graham has previously called on Moore to step aside in the race, adding that “if you can’t be in a mall, you shouldn’t be in the Senate,” a reference to reports that Moore was banned from a local mall after badgering teenage girls there. 

“I think he’s a terrible nominee for the Republican Party, and we’ll probably lose a seat that’s impossible to lose, almost, as a Republican,” Graham said Monday.