What Tim Scott says should happen if Roy Moore wins Senate election

Republicans will face questions after Tuesday’s special Senate election no matter who wins.

If embattled candidate Roy Moore loses in Alabama, the GOP’s Senate majority will be cut to a single vote. If Moore wins, Republicans will continue to be dogged by allegations about Moore’s sexual history with teenage girls.

If Moore does make it to the Senate, South Carolina’s U.S. Sen. Tim Scott says his troubles won’t end there.

Scott, R-Charleston, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Moore immediately will face a Senate ethics investigation if he wins on Tuesday.

“We'll have a greater opportunity for us to look into all the issues, the allegations and, perhaps, even talk with some of the folks who are witnesses,” Scott said.

Scott said he sees reason to believe the women who have come forward to accuse Moore of sexual misconduct.

“I’ve always said that so far, as far as I can tell, the allegations are significantly stronger than the denial,” the Republican said. “I'm going to let my decision be made by the breadth of information and evidence that I'm able to review during that process.”

Also on Sunday, Alabama’s Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby said he would not be voting to have Moore join him in the Senate, casting a write-in vote instead.

Despite the accusations, Scott said if Alabama voters choose Moore, senators will not move to expel him. He also said there is nothing they can do to “relitigate” sexual assault allegations against President Donald Trump since Trump won the 2016 election.

“There are two very different scenarios here,” Scott said, “One, the Senate has responsibility and oversight over our members. ... The people of this country have the responsibility of choosing our president. They have chosen.”

‘People who speak ignorantly’

Scott, the only African American in the GOP’s Senate caucus, was also asked to respond to Moore’s comments that America was “great” during the time of slavery and a tweet from U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, that “diversity is not our strength.”

“Well, [there is] very little that I can do about people who speak ignorantly,” Scott said. “And you just have to call it for what it is, No. 1. No. 2, the bottom line is both when Steve King and Tim Scott arrived in this country, we were actually creating diversity because the Native Americans were already here. So that is just a ridiculous statement.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2017 at 10:12 AM with the headline "What Tim Scott says should happen if Roy Moore wins Senate election."