Yesterday’s vaguely feel-good story was that a staggeringly racist and homophobic alleged child molester just barely failed to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. Roy Moore‘s loss was a huge relief, and obviously a staggering blow to pedophiles seeking office everywhere.
Over the past week or so, Donald Trump – after a period of keeping quiet – had full-throatedly endorsed Moore’s candidacy, despite strong evidence from numerous women that the former judge had preyed on teenage girls while he was in his 30s. Many reports suggested Trump confided to his inner circle that he believed the women were lying. In the day before the election, a robocall recorded by Trump circulated among Alabama residents, urging them to cast their vote for Moore.
Now that the victory has been handed to Democratic opponent Doug Jones, Trump is rapidly backtracking. In a tweet posted not long after the election loss, Trump reminded people that in the Republican primary he had actually backed Moore’s opponent Luther Strange.
The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2017
He also made a tweet which seemed to suggest that the Republicans should be putting up GREAT candidates – which I assume means they should be putting up candidates who have not been accused of molesting children.
If last night’s election proved anything, it proved that we need to put up GREAT Republican candidates to increase the razor thin margins in both the House and Senate.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2017
Trump’s not wrong – he did endorse Strange in the primary, despite the fact that much of his base were very pro-Moore, including his former adviser Steve Bannon. That tweet does conveniently leave out the fact that Trump later went on to enthusiastically endorse Moore after it was revealed he was literally banned from a mall for hitting on teens. I mean… ya can’t really walk that one back.
A report in the New York Times alleges that Trump is looking for someone to blame this whole debacle on who is not himself, now that he inexplicably put his own reputation and the weight of his presidency behind someone who was credibly accused of being a pedophile.
If there’s a moral to the story, it’s probably this: do not try to elect alleged child molesters to political office. It generally will not end well for anyone.
