Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that Alabama Republican candidate Roy Moore should be "held accountable" for alleged behavior "that is at the minimum creepy" and said "it would be good" if President Donald Trump spoke to the situation.
"The people of Alabama have to deal with it," the South Carolina Republican told reporters at the Capitol. "It is a shame.
"I would like the Republican Party of Alabama to step up and fix this for the good of the state and the country."
When Graham was asked whether Trump should weigh in on Moore, he responded: "Well, that will be up to him.
"He's the head of the party," the senator said. "Yeah, it would be good if he will say something."
Moore, 70, a former Alabama Supreme Court judge, has been accused by five women of harassing them when they were in their teens and he was in his 30s.
One accuser alleged Moore tried to initiate a sexual encounter when she was 14, while another came forward Monday to contend the Senate candidate assaulted her behind the restaurant where she worked in Gadsden when she was 16. Moore was 32.
He has said the allegations are false and has suggested the accusers were coming forward to try to stop his political career.
The top Republicans on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to become a write-in candidate in the race.
Sessions was a five-term Alabama senator whose appointment to the White House created the vacancy leading to the Dec. 12 special election.
The New Yorker also reported Monday that Moore was banned from the Gadsden Mall when he was a prosecutor in the early 1980s after repeatedly trying to pick up teenage girls.
"I met a lot of people at the mall — and if you get kicked out of the mall, that's a bad situation to find oneself in," Graham told reporters Thursday. "The evidence is becoming overwhelming.
"In the '70s and '80s, he's on the no-flight list at malls, but it is stunning.
"He's being held accountable for behavior that was at the minimum creepy — and I think the women's allegations have their own truth.
"This stuff about the mall confirms his behavior in question."