Jonah Goldberg: “I am one of those naïve fools who actually believed that the conservatives who often talked the loudest about the supreme importance of character were sincere. The last two years disabused me of that.”

“But just as a matter of cold realpolitik, I cannot grasp why so many people think it’s a good idea to stand by a man who, if elected, will serve as a negative campaign ad made flesh. I get the argument that it’s a ‘binary choice!’ But it’s a binary choice now, because a bunch of people who want to see the GOP burn down made it one. In the long run, a Senator Moore would cost Republicans more seats than the one he might give them. He’d be an albatross for every elected Republican, including President Trump, who will be asked to take a side on every scene in the clown show Moore would bring to Washington. And every conservative who ever denounces a Democrat for immoral behavior or insane views will be asked, ‘Oh yeah, why did you support Roy Moore then?'”

“Saving Steve Bannon’s reputation as the leader of some (doomed) movement certainly isn’t worth it, not for the cost to the GOP not to mention your own souls.”

Roy Moore (R) “sent a fundraising email Thursday afternoon asking for donations to combat the ‘Obama-Clinton Machine’s liberal media lapdogs,’ hours after the Washington Post published accounts from four women who said that Moore pursued relationships with them when he was in his 30s and they were teenagers,” Politico reports.

Said Moore: “The forces of evil will lie, cheat, steal — even inflict physical harm — if they believe it will silence and shut up Christian conservatives like you and me.”

The email then asks for an “emergency contribution” to Moore’s campaign.

Embattled Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore (R) told supporters “that he would not back down amid calls for him to step aside from the race following a new report that accuses him of inappropriate sexual conduct with a minor in 1979,” The Hill reports.

Said Moore: “I refuse to stand down.”

“Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus. There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual.”

— Alabama state auditor Jim Zeigler (R), quoted by the Washington Examiner, defending Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore (R), who is accused of initiating sexual relations with teenage girls.

“Senate Republicans moved swiftly to distance themselves from their party’s nominee for Senate in Alabama on Thursday after multiple women accused him of inappropriate sexual conduct when they were minors—including one who said he molested her at the age of 14 years,” the Daily Beast reports.

“Within hours of a Washington Post story reporting the allegations against Roy Moore, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, the Senate’s top GOP lawmakers called on Moore to withdraw from the race, albeit with a caveat.”

Weekly Standard: “The allegations spell potential disaster for Republicans in Alabama, as it is likely too late to field another candidate even if Moore were to step aside immediately.”

Axios has a running tally of statements from Republican lawmakers condemning Moore.