During the campaign, a long list of American women came forward to confirm that Donald Trump had either sexually harassed or sexually assaulted them. A recording surfaced of Trump himself bragging about those sexual assaults, describing how he forced himself on women and citing his self-inflated fame as the reason he felt allowed to do it.
Now Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is attempting to decide what his party will do about new charges that the party’s Alabama candidate, Roy Moore, sexually assaulted multiple teenage girls while working as a district attorney in the 1970s, and Mitch McConnell is confirming that he has been attempting to coordinate the party’s response with the Trump White House.
McConnell told reporters that Trump called him from Vietnam last week to discuss what to do about Moore, who faces multiple sexual accusations — including from one women who said they had a sexual encounter when he was 32 and she was 14.
This is notable because Donald Trump, who is never silent about anything that he sees on television, has apparently not had a damn thing to say about one of his party's most high-profile candidates, and one he belatedly endorsed, being exposed as a child molester.
"We had a chance to discuss this issue. I talked to Gen. Kelly about it on Saturday, I talked to the vice president about it yesterday. There's no question there's a deep concern here," McConnell said referring to White House chief of staff John Kelly and Vice President Pence.
Similarly, crack White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and noted Jesus devotee Mike Pence have kept their silence on whether or not a candidate accused by multiple women of sexually assaulting them as children should or should not have a place in their party.
"Once the president and his team get back, we'll have further discussions about it," he said.
So where the entire Republican Party is at right now, apparently, is that they are patiently waiting to hear whether a man accused of a history of repeated sexual assaults will allow them to take action against a man accused of molesting children. Because if Donald Trump fights them on this, there will need to be further "discussions" about whether anything can be done or whether, from this day forward, the Republican-led Senate will also welcome a child molester.
McConnell has already stated, and firmly, that he believes the accusations against Moore. He is not arguing whether Roy Moore molested a child or sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl in a back alley; he says he believes it to be true, so now the party is attempting to settle whether or not they will support Roy Moore as a member of their party and of the Senate regardless of those acts. And for that, they are waiting to hear from Donald Trump.
Asked whether he believed women who have made accusations about Trump, McConnell declined to answer and said it was off-topic.
It's not off-topic at all, of course. Mitch McConnell will be relying on the opinion of a man accused of a long history of sexual assault in determining whether his party will or will not attempt to expel another man who faces the same claims. If Donald Trump decides that the child molester should stay in the party, it is Mitch McConnell who will have to either make that happen or rebuff Trump.
The Republican Party's top leaders are giving the man who bragged on tape about repeated sexual assaults the power to decide what happens to the man accused of sexually assaulting children. Mitch can try to dodge questions about the wisdom of such a plan all he likes, but he himself confirmed that that's what's happening.