Gillian Turner on Roy Moore: ‘The Whole Episode Bodes Very Poorly for the Republican Party’

WALLACE: All of this, of course, happens in the wake of the shellacking that Republicans took around the country in last Tuesday’s elections.

Gillian, in the Fox News voter analysis of the Virginia governor’s race, women, let’s put it up on the screen, voted for the Democrat, Northam, over the Republican, Gillespie, women, by a margin of 19 points. If Roy Moore wins the special election next month and is seated in the Senate, won’t that just add to Republican problems heading into the 2018 midterms?

TURNER: I think it will. And when it comes to Moore’s conduct, I think whether or not he’s ultimately exonerated or proven guilty, the whole episode bodes very poorly for the Republican Party at large, both in terms of their ability to legislate over the coming year and then win elections next year because the party’s effectively now, this past week, arguing amongst itself about allegations of assault of minors. It’s a very serious and sort of horrible thing to have to hammer out in a few days before an election.

But I think more broadly speaking, looking beyond this special election, I think the party is going to have to come to terms with, is this something that we are willing to prioritize over and above policy? Meaning, are we willing to put our principles aside in order to get to policy solutions that we can all agree on. And that’s a question that I think the Republican Party has been grappling with since the 2016 general election. Unfortunately, the assault of women was a theme common during that time also.

WALLACE: All right, we’re going to have to take a break here.