If Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore wins Tuesday, he'll take office "under an ethics cloud" and he should just "step aside," Sen. John Thune said Friday.
Also, the South Dakota Republican told "CBS This Morning" that he thinks it's "unfortunate" that the Republican National Committee has resumed fundraising efforts for Moore, who faces several accusations from women who say he was sexually inappropriate while they were teens.
"I think the one thing I've said all along is if he comes to Washington, he will immediately be under an ethics cloud, probably an ethics investigation," Thune said. If that happens, the Senate Ethics Committee could recommend that Moore be censured or expelled from the Senate.
"It's a huge distraction," Thune commented, and the simplest, most wise move for him would be to "step aside."
Thune also said he does not condone the RNC's decision to finance Moore's campaign.
"There are men across all kinds of industries that are learning that there are consequences to bad behavior and I think that's a good thing," the senator also said, while commenting on Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken's announcement that he'd resign his seat at the end of the year.
"What happened yesterday is unfortunate for the Senate, but I think the discussion we're having is long overdue and I think it points out action is needed," said Thune. "We can't continue to accept the status quo there or anywhere else for that matter."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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