Why Trump Stands by Roy Moore, Even as It Fractures His Party
- 6 years ago
Why Trump Stands by Roy Moore, Even as It Fractures His Party
And Senate Republicans initially seemed to have allies in the West Wing: Mr. McConnell found Mr. Trump
and Vice President Mike Pence to be receptive when he first talked to them about disavowing Mr. Moore.
By the time Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, made the last of his repeated pleas to
President Trump to keep his distance from the Senate candidacy of Roy S. Moore, it was too late.
President Trump came out in defense of Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate from Alabama.
When a group of senators gathered with the president in the White House last week to discuss the tax overhaul, it took little to get Mr. Trump onto the topic of Mr. Moore —
and he immediately offered up the same it-was-40-years-ago defense, according to officials at the meeting.
The president blindsided congressional Republicans with his defense of Mr. Moore, who was a polarizing figure — he has said homosexual
conduct should be illegal — well before being accused of making sexual advances on minors when he was a district attorney in his 30s.
He’s run eight races, and this has never come up,” Mr. Trump said to the television cameras on the South Lawn
hours after his conversation with Mr. McConnell, effectively endorsing Mr. Moore before boarding Marine One.
“As much as people would like to assume that, as Louis XIV said, ‘I am the state,’ there is more than one person who represents the Republican Party,
and the preponderance of the party has dissociated itself from Moore,” said Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
And Senate Republicans initially seemed to have allies in the West Wing: Mr. McConnell found Mr. Trump
and Vice President Mike Pence to be receptive when he first talked to them about disavowing Mr. Moore.
By the time Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, made the last of his repeated pleas to
President Trump to keep his distance from the Senate candidacy of Roy S. Moore, it was too late.
President Trump came out in defense of Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate from Alabama.
When a group of senators gathered with the president in the White House last week to discuss the tax overhaul, it took little to get Mr. Trump onto the topic of Mr. Moore —
and he immediately offered up the same it-was-40-years-ago defense, according to officials at the meeting.
The president blindsided congressional Republicans with his defense of Mr. Moore, who was a polarizing figure — he has said homosexual
conduct should be illegal — well before being accused of making sexual advances on minors when he was a district attorney in his 30s.
He’s run eight races, and this has never come up,” Mr. Trump said to the television cameras on the South Lawn
hours after his conversation with Mr. McConnell, effectively endorsing Mr. Moore before boarding Marine One.
“As much as people would like to assume that, as Louis XIV said, ‘I am the state,’ there is more than one person who represents the Republican Party,
and the preponderance of the party has dissociated itself from Moore,” said Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.