If not for Alabama’s Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, Republicans would currently be embroiled in a process with “devastating” effects on the party’s appeal with women, as Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., sees it.

Asked in a Wednesday editorial board meeting with the Washington Examiner if Roy Moore’s Senate candidacy hurt the GOP’s appeal with female voters, the current chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee argued that Moore’s loss actually spared Republicans something much worse. “I think what happened in Alabama would have been devastating with women,” said Gardner, “because we would be here today talking about the expulsion of Roy Moore.”