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Trump Warns Roy Moore Against Alabama Senate Run Despite Warning From Trump, Roy Moore Says He Can Win Alabama Senate Seat
(about 4 hours later)
President Trump on Wednesday issued a highly public warning to the former Alabama judge Roy Moore not to make a second run for Senate, or else risk losing a seat in a solidly Republican state again. Donald J. Trump is publicly making the case that Roy Moore, the controversial former Alabama judge, could cost Republicans a Senate seat in an overwhelmingly conservative state if he chooses to run again.
Mr. Moore, who was defeated in a 2017 special election after being accused of pursuing relationships with teenage girls while in his 30s, has hinted in recent weeks that he would make another try at the Senate seat. He lost narrowly in deeply conservative Alabama to Doug Jones, a Democrat considered his party’s most vulnerable Senate incumbent up for re-election in 2020. One person he hasn’t convinced is Mr. Moore himself.
“There’s a lot I have to offer,” Mr. Moore said in an interview Wednesday, adding that he would make up his mind by the end of June whether to challenge Doug Jones, the Democrat who narrowly beat him in 2017. He added, “Everything seems to be very favorable.”
President Trump took to Twitter early Wednesday to say that if Mr. Moore was the Republican nominee in 2020, he would most likely lose again to Mr. Jones, considered the Democratic Party’s most vulnerable incumbent up for Senate re-election next year.
“Republicans cannot allow themselves to again lose the Senate seat in the Great State of Alabama,” Mr. Trump said in a tweet.
Mr. Moore was defeated in a 2017 special election after being accused of pursuing relationships with teenage girls while in his 30s. He had hinted in recent weeks that he would make another try for the Senate seat.
In the interview, Mr. Moore complained that the president was getting “bad advice” about him from “the establishment in Washington,” which fears his views on social issues such as his opposition to gay marriage.
“I think politics are at work and people behind the scenes are trying to force him to distance himself from me,” Mr. Moore said, referring to Mr. Trump. “It’s wrong. The truth is they know I’ll win if I run.”
If the race were a rematch, Mr. Moore would provide Democrats a national target to accuse Republicans of being too far to the right, in a state that recently banned abortion in nearly all cases, without exceptions for rape and incest.If the race were a rematch, Mr. Moore would provide Democrats a national target to accuse Republicans of being too far to the right, in a state that recently banned abortion in nearly all cases, without exceptions for rape and incest.
Mr. Trump, who endorsed Mr. Moore late in the 2017 race, and who has often used Twitter to weigh in on Republican primary fights, said Wednesday on Twitter: “I have nothing against Roy Moore, and unlike many other Republican leaders, wanted him to win. But he didn’t, and probably won’t.” Still, many Republicans are worried both ways — that Mr. Moore could run and lose, or that they could pay a price if he runs and wins.
Mr. Moore said in an interview Wednesday that the president was getting “bad advice” about him from “the establishment in Washington,” which fears his views on social issues such as his opposition to gay marriage. On Tuesday, the president’s son Donald Jr., a key campaign surrogate for his father, went after Mr. Moore more personally, saying on Twitter, “You’re literally the only candidate who could lose a GOP seat in pro-Trump, pro-USA ALABAMA.” He added, “It’s time to ride off into the sunset, Judge.”
“I think politics are at work and people behind the scenes are trying to force him to distance himself from me,’’ Mr. Moore said, referring to Mr. Trump. “It’s wrong. The truth is they know I’ll win if I run.’’ Responding to the younger Mr. Trump, Mr. Moore said: “The last time I rode into the sunset, he wasn’t born. I rode so far I wound up in Vietnam where I defended our country.”
He said he would make a decision about entering the race this month. “There’s polls showing I do have a chance,’’ he said. “Everything seems to be very favorable.’’ Mr. Moore was twice removed from office while serving as the state’s chief justice, once for defying an order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama judicial building, and again for ordering state judges to disobey the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriages.
On Tuesday, the president’s son Donald Jr., a key campaign surrogate for his father, went after Mr. Moore more personally, saying on Twitter, “You’re literally the only candidate who could lose a GOP seat in pro-Trump, pro-USA ALABAMA.” He added: “It’s time to ride off into the sunset, Judge.” At least two other Republicans — Representative Bradley Byrne and Tommy Tuberville, a former Auburn University football coach — have announced candidacies for the Senate nomination.
Mr. Moore, who was twice removed from office while serving as the state’s chief justice, said this month he was “strongly considering” a second Senate run. At least two other Republicans — Representative Bradley Byrne and Tommy Tuberville, a former Auburn University football coach — have announced candidacies for the nomination. Perry Hooper Jr., an Alabama fund-raiser for Mr. Trump’s re-election, said the president recently asked him about the primary taking shape, and brought up Mr. Byrne’s call for him to step aside as the Republican nominee in 2016 after the “Access Hollywood” tape revealed Mr. Trump boasting of sexual assault.
“The resident said, ‘Perry, Bradley wasn’t with me in 2016, was Tommy?’” Mr. Hooper recalled. He said he told the president that he had heard Mr. Tuberville expressing support late in the 2016 campaign.
“At that point the president said, ‘That’s good to know,’” Mr. Hooper said.
Senator Todd Young of Indiana, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, telephoned Mr. Trump earlier this month to make the case that Mr. Moore can’t win and express his hope that the party can be unified in its opposition to him, according to two Republican officials familiar with the conversation.
Mr. Young was acting at the behest of the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who has made no secret of his contempt for Mr. Moore and his determination to derail his candidacy. In 2017, a “super PAC” aligned with Mr. McConnell spent $6.9 million in the Alabama primary opposing Mr. Moore and in support of a more establishment candidate, former Senator Luther Strange.
Mr. McConnell and other leading Republicans privy to internal polling data from Alabama believe Mr. Moore is politically weakened but, recognizing that he still enjoys a loyal following of evangelicals, not to be ignored.
Senior Republican officials say they are all but resigned to another Moore candidacy, saying his income depends on his remaining in the political spotlight.
“There’s a lot about Roy Moore that still needs to be examined, especially on the financial element, it’s a tangled web,” said Kevin McLaughlin, the top aide at the Republican Senate committee, calling himself “A.B.R.M — Anyone but Roy Moore.”
If Mr. Moore does find his way to the nomination, it would complicate Senate Republican efforts to retain their three-seat majority. Assuming any mainstream Republican would win the deep-red state in a presidential year, party leaders have been banking on capturing Mr. Jones’s seat, and forcing Democrats to find four seats, rather than three, to reclaim the chamber.
Paul DeMarco, a former Republican state lawmaker in Alabama, said that while Mr. Moore might be doing well in some early polls, that is became most voters’ thoughts are on summer and on fall football, not the Senate primary in 2020. Once the race nears, Republicans’ minds will concentrate on defeating Mr. Jones, he said.
“And so I think what President Trump is reflecting is actually the will of the people of Alabama,” Mr. DeMarco added.
Mr. Moore, 72, lost to Mr. Jones in a special election to fill the seat of Jeff Sessions, who had been appointed attorney general. The race drew intense national focus once several women accused Mr. Moore of sexual misconduct when he was a young prosecutor, including one who said she was 14 when he kissed her and guided her to touch his crotch, and another who said she was 16 when he grabbed her breasts.
Mr. Moore denied the accusations and refused to drop out of the race despite pressure from Republican elected officials. He later sued four accusers for defamation and conspiracy.
On Wednesday, Mr. Moore insisted the accusations would not haunt a second bid for the Senate. “I think everybody knows that that was an anomaly,” he said of the 2017 contest. “That was a fraudulent race.”