GOP calls on one sexual predator to go, still stands by the one in the White House

The talking point is fairly universal among Senate Republicans: If the allegations against Moore are true, they say, he should drop out of the special election, which takes place just a month from now.

“If these allegations are true,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, “he must step aside.”

“If that’s true, then he wouldn’t belong in the Senate,” said Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby.

South Carolina’s Tim Scott, Arizona’s Jeff Flake, Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey, and National Republican Senate Committee chair Cory Gardner all expressed the same conditional sentiment — that Moore should step aside if the shocking stories are indeed true.

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, who was in the Capitol on Thursday, laughed and refused to comment.

That these Republicans are acknowledging such stories should disqualify someone from holding office is an improvement over the position they have held — and continue to hold — regarding Donald Trump.

Trump has not only been accused of serial sexual assault and harassment; he has admitted it. He has bragged about it. And many women have come forward to confirm that he did indeed assault and harass them, just as he described in the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape.

Refusing to support an accused sexual predator is the right position to take. But until Republicans stand up to the admitted predator who leads their party and the country, their comments on Moore are ingenuous and insufficient.