Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell backed off his opinion that Roy Moore should drop out of the Alabama Senate race, saying on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “the people of Alabama are going to decide a week from Tuesday who they want to send to the Senate.”

Why this matters: During the Senate primary, McConnell endorsed Luther Strange while the Senate Leadership Fund, a Super PAC run by McConnell’s former chief of staff, funded millions of dollars’ worth of ads attacking Moore. Neither worked. As the election looms, McConnell finally appears to be realizing both his limited influence and his unpopularity among Alabama voters.

The details:

— Anti-McConnell sentiment is high in Alabama.

— “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson asked McConnell about a recent CBS poll which indicates that among Moore supporters, 56 percent say they were more likely to vote for him after McConnell said he should quit the race.

— “Well, look, the people of Alabama are going to decide a week from Tuesday who they want to send to the Senate,” McConnell responded. “It’s really up to them. It’s been a pretty robust campaign with a lot of people weighing in. The President and I of course supported somebody different earlier in the process. But in the end the voters of Alabama will make their choice.”