More GOPers Denounce Roy Moore, While Trump Lambastes His Opponent

Donald Trump is doubling down on his support for far-right U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, or at least his excoriation of Moore's opponent, while more Republican officials are saying Moore is bad for their party.

"The last thing we need in Alabama and the U.S. Senate is a Schumer/Pelosi puppet who is WEAK on Crime, WEAK on the Border, Bad for our Military and our great Vets, Bad for our 2nd Amendment, AND WANTS TO RAISES TAXES TO THE SKY. Jones would be a disaster!" Trump tweeted early Sunday, after having made similar statements to reporters a few days ago.

"I endorsed Luther Strange in the Alabama Primary. He shot way up in the polls but it wasn't enough. Can't let Schumer/Pelosi win this race. Liberal Jones would be BAD!" Trump added.

Moore, the extremely anti-LGBT former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, is running in a special election to fill the state's U.S. Senate seat that was vacated by Jeff Sessions when he became Trump's attorney general. In the Republican primary, he bested Strange, who is serving as interim senator, and he faces Democrat Doug Jones, a former prosecutor and Senate aide, in the general election December 12.

There have been calls for Moore to leave the race ever since allegations surfaced of him having relationships with teenage girls when he was in his early 30s (he is now 70). Some of the relationships reportedly didn't go beyond kissing, but some of the women involved said he touched them in a sexual manner without their consent; one of them was just 14 at the time. Moore denies all the allegations of sexual assault and dating underage girls (he said he may have dated girls in their later teens), and Trump has cited this denial in making pro-Moore, anti-Jones statements. The president has stopped just short of endorsing Moore outright.

On the Sunday political talk shows, several Republicans criticized both Moore and Trump, according to a summary compiled by The Hill. Numerous GOPers had previously said Moore should leave the race, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"If Moore wins, there will immediately be an ethics investigation and he will be working under a cloud. He is a distraction," Republican U.S. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota said on Fox News Sunday, adding, "I would like to see the president come out and do what we've done, saying Moore should step aside."

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina reiterated his criticism of Moore in an appearance on CNN's State of the Union. "If you think winning with Roy Moore is going to be easy for the Republican Party, you're mistaken," he said.

Rob Portman of Ohio, one of the more pro-LGBT Republicans in the Senate (he has a gay son) suggested that Alabamians write in another Republican as an alternative to Moore. But it would be best if Moore would step aside, he said on NBC's Meet the Press.

Watch a video from The Hill below.