explicit allegations first came out about the republican candidate for senate in alabama, the white house has walked a fine line up until this afternoon. the president made clear he supports roy moore. i asked one top republican close to the white house why. all of these allegations that have come out since, have made it quote easier and easier to back moore. president trump made clear today he would rather have an accused child mow lester in the senate than a democrat. we don t need a liberal person in there, a democrat, jones. reporter: the president weighing in publicly for the first time in alabama s explosive senate race, saying he accepts roy moore s denials over the stories of eight women who have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct. let me just tell you, roy moore denies it. that s all i can say. he denies it and, by the way, he totally denies it. reporter: for days the white house has said the race should be left to the voters of alabama. republican lead
what he hoped he would get. really in exchange for doing his job. every president would have done the same thing, you know, you re in the country where a couple of your citizens are in trouble and make an appeal. so there s that action taking place, where he s avoiding discussing roy moore, it s because there s a price to be paid if he steps into that controversy. there s a possible loss for him. he already saw that his favored candidate in the alabama primary didn t prevail luther strange. he has to back moore, the republican. right. so he has been burned once there. and there s a balance of consequences that he doesn t want to risk in the case of the basketball players and mr. ball, he wasn t taking any real risk. there was nothing he could lose but he could gain where his base was concerned and so he made the move. all right, michael dan tone
that brings the total number of accusers to nine now. moore denies the allegations and says they are political attacks launched by the liberal media and the republican establishment. the big question still not answered here is whether the president is going to weigh in and, if he does, will he back moore or ask him to step aside. catie beck is in mountain brook, alabama. donald trump did very well in alabama as a candidate. he had a big rally there recently. any expectation if he weighs in that it will affect this race? reporter: well, i think people are certainly sitting on edge waiting for him to weigh in here on the ground in alabama roy moore is still in a very defensive position. we re watching two developments in the story this morning. the first development being that there is a scheduled press conference at 2:00 eastern today at which we are expected to hear
merry christmas, love roy moore, d.a. i think he should step aside. the backlash on capitol hill continues to grow. a number of republican senators calling on moore to leave the race outright, removing a key caveat from earlier statements, encouraging him to drop out only if the allegations are true. do you believe these allegations to be true? i believe the women, yes. reporter: senator cory gardner, going further, saying if moore refuses to withdraw and wins, the senate should vote for expel him. others voicing support for a possible write-in candidate. only five senators who back moore s campaign officially withdraw their endorsements. still many voters in his state of alabama rallying around the controversial former judge. we make very bad decisions when we re young. are we going to take one bad action and discount the good
possible write-in candidate as the only five senators who back moore s campaign officially withdraw their endorsements. still many voters back in the home state of alabama rallying around the controversial former judge. we make very bad decisions when we re young. are we going to take one bad action and discount the good he s doing now? reporter: others in his hometown telling cnn that rumors about moore s behavior are well known. what we would hear was that he would hang out at the mall to meet young teenagers. it was common knowledge. you just steered away from him. reporter: part of moore s defense, he says some of these accusers are being paid to come forward. i spoke to leigh corpman s family about that. she claims to be sexually assaulted by moore when she was