Roy Moore heard the president's request that he sit out the next Alabama Senate race, but he will not be heeding it.
“The president doesn’t control who votes for the United States Senate in Alabama,” Moore told Politico on Wednesday. “People in Alabama are smarter than that. They elect the senator from Alabama, not from Washington, D.C.”
Well, perhaps Moore forgot that the "people in Alabama" rejected him in December 2017, when they voted in his opponent Doug Jones as their next senator. It was the first time a Democrat won a Senate seat in Alabama in 25 years. But Moore apparently thinks Alabamians have softened on him because he's "seriously considering" running again in next fall's election.
Accusations derailed Moore's Senate campaign in 2017. Multiple women accused him of sexually molesting them when they were young girls and he was a thirty something state assistant district attorney. Moore denied the charges and refused to step aside for another, less controversial Republican candidate. At the time, he had the president's blessing. Since the historic defeat, however, Trump has changed his tune.
Republicans cannot allow themselves to again lose the Senate seat in the Great State of Alabama. This time it will be for Six Years, not just Two. I have NOTHING against Roy Moore, and unlike many other Republican leaders, wanted him to win. But he didn’t, and probably won’t.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2019
...If Alabama does not elect a Republican to the Senate in 2020, many of the incredible gains that we have made during my Presidency may be lost, including our Pro-Life victories. Roy Moore cannot win, and the consequences will be devastating....Judges and Supreme Court Justices!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2019