Paul Ryan echoes calls for Roy Moore to 'step aside'

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) issued his strongest condemnation yet of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who is battling multiple allegations of initiating inappropriate intimate relationships with women while they were teenagers and he was a district attorney in his early 30s.

Ryan told reporters Tuesday that the allegations against Moore "are credible" and said the former judge, who is running for Senate as a Republican in the Yellowhammer State, should "step aside." Ryan's comments echo his upper chamber counterpart Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who also said Monday that Moore should withdraw, adding, "I believe the women, yes."

McConnell also floated the idea of submitting a write-in candidate for the election, which will be held Dec. 12. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which works to elect Republicans to the upper chamber, said Monday that if Moore stays in the race and wins the seat, senators should vote to expel him.

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Moore has denied all allegations, which emerged last week after The Washington Post reported on allegations from four women who said Moore had pursued them while they were teenagers and he was the district attorney of Alabama's Etowah County. On Monday, Beverly Young-Nelson became the fifth woman to speak out against Moore, saying that when she was 16 he tried to sexually assault her in his car.