Trump Will Not Campaign for Moore
The special election is scheduled for December 12.
A White House official has said that President Donald Trump will not campaign for Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused by numerous women of sexual assault when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.
From AL.com:
The official says Trump will not travel to Alabama on Moore’s behalf, despite his public statements doubting the women accusing Moore of sexual assault. The president held the door open to campaigning for Moore last week, when he all but endorsed Moore’s candidacy and attacked his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones.
Trump has declined to follow the path of other mainstream Republican leaders, who have called on Moore to step aside. Republican lawmakers are considering expelling Moore should he win the seat.
Trump has used Twitter to lash out at Moore’s Democratic opponent Doug Jones.
This news is not that surprising, though. Last week, Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng at The Daily Beast reported that this decision came before Trump returned from his Asia trip:
Last week, Trump’s top aides were actively trying to figure out the best way for the president to disentangle himself from the toxicity of Moore, a candidate Trump previously praised. At the time, two White House officials told The Daily Beast that it was unclear how Trump and his team would eventually proceed, though campaigning with Moore or formally endorsing his campaign were off the table.
Eventually, the president announced, through press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, that Moore should step aside from the race—if the allegations were true. Senior White House staffers were even more harsh.
The special election will happen on December 12. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) has said that she will not move it and that she will vote for Moore to help the GOP keep the majority in the Senate.
Many Republicans within the Senate have rescinded their endorsements of Moore after the accusations came out. ABC News continued:
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that when it comes to Moore, it’s unclear “what winning looks like.”
“If he wins, we get the baggage of him winning and it becomes a story every day about whether or not you believe the women or Roy Moore, should he stay in the Senate, should he be expelled. If you lose, you give the Senate seat to a Democrat at a time we need all the votes we can get,” he said, referring to Republicans’ current 52-48 majority in the Senate.
“The moral of the story is: Don’t nominate somebody like Roy Moore who could actually lose a seat that any other Republican could win,” Graham said.
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said he’d like to see Trump “come out and support what many of us have said and that is that Roy Moore needs to step aside” and “allow somebody else to be a write-in candidate.”
He said on “Fox News Sunday” that if Moore ends up winning, he will be the immediate subject of an ethics investigation, “which is going to be a cloud that he’ll be operating in and it’s going to be a distraction for us and for our agenda.”
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Comments
If it isn’t broke don’t fix it.
Why should Trump nationalize the election getting involved when the main selling point for Moore is how the Democrats brought in outsiders from Washington to corrupt their election?
He can help by giving light support from a distance and let the current anti-Washington momentum play out to elect Moore.
Right now, the Dems can attack Moore with nothing in the way of evidence. All they have are claims and innuendos. All their attempts to dig up anything more concrete have failed. And claims and innuendos are pretty weak tea—the infamous photo of Al Franken in action raised the bar on that stuff. Right now, you either bring the photo or run the tape, because otherwise, you got nuthin’.
If Trump campaigns for Moore, they’ll suddenly have something they can attack; that “p***y-grab” thing. He’ll give them the opportunity they need to attack. They’ll be attacking Trump, not Moore, but that won’t be too important; it’s the only real handle they’ll have, and they’ll try to use it.
Now … why would anyone think that Trump is dumb enough to blunder into an ambush like that?
Good points Tom, but I’d wager, the Dems aren’t the ones doing the hitting at Moore as much as it’s McConnell’s bunch. The GOPe is desperate NOT to seat Judge Moore. They’d rather lose the seat.
i agree: the MFM has already pretty much won the election for Moore: the obviously coordinated attack by the #deepstate, the crocodile tears from Ms Lindsey & the rest of the swamp RINOs bemoaning the possibility of having to rub shoulders with areal conservative that actually supports Trump, the establishment bias couldn’t be any clearer to any observant voter.
With polls showing Moore comfortably ahead there is no reason for President Trump to get too heavily involved. As has already been said, if it ain’t broke!
I totes believe a anonymous “White House staffer “. I predict, the President is going to explicitly endorse Judge Moore if not fly down to Alabama for a quickly-assembled rally this weekend.
This story above, seems like wish-casting by know-nothings, leaking , somehow…for the first time EVER, what in in the Presidents mind about future events. Good grief.
To any and all, this should be a decision made by the people of Alabama and no one else. Here in Georgia, we got to see first hand what it is like for the Demorat machine to go into high gear and totally distort a simple election. They are so desperate for a win that they will do anything, spend any amount of money and in clinton fashion, try to steal an election. I think Trump is right to stay out and just see what happens. There is no upside for Trump. If Moore loses Trump loses. If Moore wins Trump loses in public opinion. Just two more weeks and this will just be a bad memory for all.
“numerous women of sexual assault when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.”
How many accused him of sexual assault?
I was wondering the very same thing. Repeat a lie often enough…
Apparently, numerous is three (3). And one of those alleges a butt grab.
The other two stories have been eviscerated by anyone with common sense.
The New Yorker ran a hit piece on Moore a few days back. An interesting point of coincidence is that the law professor that supposedly nicknamed him “Fruit Salad” was Clinton McGee, and he lived next door to Chuck Leavell’s family in Tuscaloosa. Leavell is a piano and keyboard player and has been a sideman to some famous acts.
I always knew Mr. McGee as a genteel person, but he is portrayed as pretty harsh in the Moore classmate stories. I don’t know whether those things happened because I was not there and never knew McGee in his capacity as a professor. Oddly, McGee was hired as a professor right out of law school by friendly faculty and he never practiced law beforehand (or after). That would never happen today [thankfully].
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-roy-moores-law-school-professor-nicknamed-him-fruit-salad
Strange, I read the puff piece that had no value. When I got to the end, a big red banner came up saying “Fake News”.
LOL, it has to be one of the no value dumbest stories I ever read. Glad I don’t read the New Yorker on a regular bases. It is as bad as listening to NPR.
The problem is that Roy Moore did not anticipate the fantastical tales of a teenage girl and contemporaneously deny that he did not do what he would be accused of doing 40 years later by an unstable scandalmonger.
Graham and Thune are actually criticizing Alabama voters, Moore got where he is by playing by the rules of the party. Now outsiders want to change the rules. Shut up and sit down, it is none of your business.