WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado made national news three weeks ago when he said fellow Republican Roy Moore should be expelled from the Senate if the former Alabama judge wins his election Tuesday.
But neither Gardner nor anyone else in the Senate Republican caucus is doing much to prepare for that possible course of action, seven GOP lawmakers said.
“There has been no discussion in caucus,” said U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., when asked whether the process of expelling Moore had been raised in party meetings. “Not about that aspect. Not in a wide circle of people, no.”
Six others — U.S. Sens. John Cornyn, Jeff Flake, John Kennedy, Rob Portman, Richard Shelby and Thom Tillis — confirmed the lack of conversation in interviews this week off the Senate floor.
“No. We’ve been busy on taxes,” said Cornyn, the Senate majority whip.
Several added that Gardner, who declined an interview request, had not sought their support for expulsion.
“I haven’t had any personal (conversations) with him (about it),” Portman said. “He raised it a couple weeks ago, maybe, just the broad issue. I think it was in the caucus. But it was in a group. Just about the broad issue whether there would be an ethics investigation but no details.”
Read my latest statement on Alabama’s U.S. Senate special election:https://t.co/rilQfqiJ9Z pic.twitter.com/GQvsGhbnYA
— Cory Gardner (@CoryGardner) November 13, 2017
The lack of activity comes amid deep Republican divisions about what to do with Moore, who has been accused of repeated sexual misconduct that includes the molestation of a 14-year-old girl.
The allegations prompted Gardner and several others to pull their support, with Gardner saying more than most Republicans by calling for his expulsion.
But others, including President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee, are backing Moore in his bid to defeat Democrat Doug Jones, and the intra-party split has raised questions about the lengths Senate Republicans will go to unseat Moore if he wins.
“LAST thing the Make America Great Again Agenda needs is a Liberal Democrat in Senate where we have so little margin for victory already,” Trump tweeted Friday. “The Pelosi/Schumer Puppet Jones would vote against us 100% of the time. He’s bad on Crime, Life, Border, Vets, Guns & Military. VOTE ROY MOORE!”
LAST thing the Make America Great Again Agenda needs is a Liberal Democrat in Senate where we have so little margin for victory already. The Pelosi/Schumer Puppet Jones would vote against us 100% of the time. He’s bad on Crime, Life, Border, Vets, Guns & Military. VOTE ROY MOORE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2017
An average of recent polls shows that Moore has a small edge, according to Real Clear Politics. The winner wouldn’t be seated until after Christmas.
The lack of preparation is notable given how difficult it is to remove a sitting U.S. senator.
To do so, the motion needs the support of 67 lawmakers in the 100-member chamber, meaning that 19 Republicans would have to join with 48 Democrats and independents to get rid of Moore.
Expulsion is so rare that it has only happened 15 times in history and not once since the Civil War era when 14 senators were ejected for “disloyalty to the Union,” according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.
“While there are no specific grounds for an expulsion expressed in the Constitution, expulsion actions in both the House and the Senate have generally concerned cases of perceived disloyalty to the United States, or the conviction of a criminal statutory offense which involved abuse of one’s official position,” the report noted.
In addition, the author wrote there has been a historical reluctance to expel a member for past transgressions because “it might be considered as infringing on the electoral process, such as when the electorate knew of the past misconduct under consideration and still elected or re-elected the Member.”
The closest Republicans have come to planning for Moore’s possible expulsion is the recent suggestion by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that the ethics committee examine his behavior, although congressional rules don’t require an ethics investigation before there’s an attempt to expel a lawmaker.
“I had hoped earlier that he would withdraw as a candidate, and obviously it’s not going to happen,” McConnell said this week. “If he were to be elected, he would immediately have an ethics committee case, and the committee would take a look at the situation and give us advice.”
That comes after McConnell said last weekend that the decision ultimately was up to the voters of Alabama.
If Moore’s case is referred to the six-member U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics, it could be months before there’s any resolution.
Even then, all three Democrats and all three Republicans probably would have to rule unanimously against Moore to compel enough senators to expel him, said Marty Paone, a Capitol Hill veteran who spent 13 years as Democratic Senate secretary.
“If it comes out as a mixed vote, I think it would be very difficult to get to two-thirds” of the Senate to support expulsion, Paone said.
Tillis took a similar tack.
“We’ve just got to wait how (the election) plays out and then we have to wait and see how the ethics investigation plays out,” Tillis said.
The North Carolina lawmaker works with Gardner at the National Republican Senatorial Committee — a fundraising group in charge of electing GOP senators — and he reiterated Gardner’s pledge that the NRSC, unlike the Republican National Committee, won’t back Moore.
“We have no plans at this point,” Tillis said. “The RNC has made a different decision.”
Gardner on Thursday told The Weekly Standard that Moore “will never have the support of the senatorial committee.”
“I won’t let that happen,” Gardner said. “Nothing will change. I stand by my previous statement.”
