In Alabama, the Senate race to replace Jeff Sessions – who is now the Attorney General – has pitted two allies against each other. On one end, the Trump Administration supports Luther Strange for Senate, while Steve Bannon – former Chief Strategist, and now head of Breitbart, again – is aggressively pushing for candidate, Roy Moore.
Stephen Bannon and other Trump loyalists are coordinating a strong last-minute effort to elect Roy Moore as Alabama’s next Senator. By Bannon’s accounting, Moore is the far more conservative candidate, and far more in line with Trump’s economic agenda.
Moore is a grass-roots conservative, an outspoken critic of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Washington “swamp.” However, on Monday, Moore made a controversial remark, in which he referred to American Indians and Asians as, “red and yellows.” While both candidates remain tightly matched in the polls, it remains to be seen whether this episode will cost Moore the election on December 12, 2017.
The President will be visiting Huntsville, Alabama on Saturday to pitch in the campaign of Luther Strange, the former attorney general of Alabama, who has the strong backing of Mitch McConnell. This move has conservatives questioning Trump’s choice of supporting Strange.
A Bannon ally commented, “it’s clear Trump is getting bad advice from the Democrats in the West Wing,” noting Trump’s recent decisions, “First Afghanistan, then DACA, now this? Trump really needs to reconsider his priorities and remember that it’s the forgotten man who sent him to Washington … The forgotten man supports Moore in Alabama, not Strange.”
Mo Brooks, a House Republican who made a failed run at the Senate in Alabama said, “Slowly but surely, Alabama voters are starting to figure out that the White House has taken a hard turn to the left.” Brooks, who endorses Moore, spoke of Trump’s recent actions, “He has been losing [his base of supporters], and the question is whether that erosion continues, stops or reverses.”
Chris Pack, a spokesman for the Senate Leadership Fund, said that the group is “focused on ensuring that President Trump’s pick to replace Jeff Sessions wins this race.” He is aligned with the McConnell and aims to re-elect the incumbents. Pack said, “It’s a shame that the president has to fight members of his own party and not just liberals and the media.”
Fox News’ Brian Dooley, in a recent broadcast, concluded, “Trump has been going against his base on a lot of things lately … I was a hardcore supporter of Trump, but I supported the Trump doctrine, not the Trump personality. He’s been listening to the wrong people and will find that out the hard way when Moore wins.”
