regarding moore, i imagine this is the inner monologue for the GOP:
they know moore is awful, and prior to 13 months ago, they probably assumed their voter bases would have agreed. but now...you have a tricky situation where there's 30% of the public who are die hard trump fanatics. which is a surprise. and not only that, but the election also demonstrated that the pathological republican is a stronger entity than anyone imagined.
so then this moore thing comes up, and these guys are legit baffled about what stance to take. he's republican and he's endorsed by trump. go against that, and what kind of blow back is there? maybe a lot. maybe only a little. but they have thumbs up butts in the meantime. what a time to be alive.