Stephen Bannon is apparently thinking of abandoning Roy Moore

Steve Bannon.
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Breitbart chairman Stephen Bannon is having second thoughts about his vocal support for Roy Moore, The Daily Beast reported Tuesday. Five days after The Washington Post published a story alleging that Moore, the Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama, had initiated sexual conduct with a 14-year-old girl and courted other high-schoolers, The Daily Beast reported that Bannon has vowed "to put [Moore] in a grave myself" if the allegations of his sexual misconduct turn out to be true.

Bannon had previously called the Post's story a "desperate attempt by Mitch McConnell to keep power" and dismissed the paper itself as "purely part of the apparatus of the Democratic Party." Breitbart has repeatedly run interference for the Moore campaign since allegations of his sexual misconduct came out last week; minutes before the Post story was published Thursday, Breitbart pre-emptively broke the news about Moore's alleged misconduct — complete with statements from his campaign denying the allegations.

On Saturday, Axios reported that Bannon sent two reporters to Alabama to try to discredit the allegations about Moore. But The Daily Beast claimed Tuesday that Bannon's allies have told him that it is "insane" to not believe the accusations against Moore — and that Bannon may have begun to believe them.

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On Monday, a fifth woman spoke out against Moore and recounted her alleged experience of being assaulted by him in his locked car when she was 16 and he in his early 30s. Moore denied these allegations — as well as most of the previous accusations — even though his signature appeared in the accuser's high school yearbook alongside a fawning note. Alabama's election will take place Dec. 12; Moore has vowed to remain in the race.

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Kelly O'Meara Morales

Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.