text: The person who should step aside is @ SenateMajLdr Mitch McConnell. He has failed conservatives and must be replaced. # DrainTheSwamp ||||| Washington (CNN) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell believes the allegations against Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore and that Moore should leave the race, the Kentucky Republican said Monday. 
   
   "I believe the women, yes," McConnell told reporters in Kentucky. 
   
   McConnell, the Senate's top Republican and a frequent target of Moore on the campaign trail, said, "I think he should step aside." 
   
   Last week, The Washington Post published a bombshell report based on interviews with more than 30 people, saying Moore pursued relationships with teenage women while he was in his 30s. One woman said she was 14 years old when Moore initiated sexual contact with her. 
   
   Moore has denied the allegations, and on Sunday night, he claimed he would sue the Post. 
   
   After McConnell's statement, Moore said via Twitter that it is McConnell who should bow out of politics. 
   
   "The person who should step aside is @SenateMajLdr Mitch McConnell. He has failed conservatives and must be replaced. #DrainTheSwamp," read the tweet from Moore's account. 
   
   The person who should step aside is @SenateMajLdr Mitch McConnell. He has failed conservatives and must be replaced. #DrainTheSwamp — Judge Roy Moore (@MooreSenate) November 13, 2017 
   
   The Post's report increased pressure on Republicans to disavow Moore, who was already controversial due in part to his history of racially-charged and homophobic commentary. 
   
   In the immediate wake of the story , some Republicans, like Arizona Sen. John McCain, said the report was enough for them to call for Moore to drop out of the race. Many Republicans, like McConnell, said Moore should step aside from the race if the allegations are true. McConnell's comments on Monday brought his position a step further, saying he believed the allegations and that Moore should go. 
   
   McConnell on Monday said the party is looking to see if a write-in option could be successful. 
   
   Documents filed to the Federal Elections Commission on Friday showed the National Republican Senatorial Committee -- one of the party's main campaign arms -- cut its fundraising ties with Moore. 
   
   This story has been updated.
target: – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is stepping up his official thoughts on Roy Moore. "I think he should step aside," he said of the GOP Senate candidate during a presser Monday, the Hill reports. Asked more specifically about allegations that Moore, running in a special Dec. 12 election in Alabama, had a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old when he was 32 and that he attempted to romance three other teens around the same time, McConnell said, "I believe the women." The last time McConnell offered his thoughts on Moore, he qualified them by saying Moore should exit the race "if these allegations are found to be true." Many GOPers who initially qualified their remarks on Moore are also retreating since he told Sean Hannity last week he may have dated teen girls around that time. McConnell is the highest-ranking GOPer in DC to officially call on Moore to step down, per the Washington Post. McConnell also said the GOP is exploring a possible write-in bid, though he didn't name names. The deadline to remove Moore's name from the ballot passed in October. Republicans have also discussed the possibility of getting the election date moved back, and CNN reports the National Republican Senatorial Committee has cut its fundraising ties with Moore. But many Alabama Republicans are still backing him, concerned that a write-in campaign would ensure a Democratic win, and Moore himself shows no signs of willingness to back down. "Apparently Mitch McConnell and the establishment GOP would rather elect a radical pro-abortion Democrat than a conservative Christian," read an email sent to his supporters Sunday night. He also tweeted Monday that "the person who should step aside is @SenateMajLdr Mitch McConnell. He has failed conservatives and must be replaced." Recent polls show the margin between Moore and opponent Doug Jones is razor thin.