Trump plays strange role of boosting establishment in Ala.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — President Donald Trump is embracing the establishment pick in a Republican runoff election in Alabama. But it’s not clear his still-loyal base will follow.
The president arrived Friday in Huntsville to stump for Sen. Luther Strange over an upstart favored by many of his supporters, including former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
Strange was appointed in February to temporarily fill the seat that opened up when Jeff Sessions became attorney general. Strange greeted Trump on the tarmac at Huntsville International Airport.
Trump took the stage before over 7,000 cheering fans in Huntsville, entering to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.”
“I’m thrilled to be here with a really great person that I’ve gotten to know,” Trump said. “On Tuesday, we’re going to send a real fighter and a real good guy from Alabama to the United States Senate on a permanent basis.”
At the same rally, Trump also profanely criticized NFL players who protest police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem and said they should be fired.
Team owners, Trump said, should respond by telling their coaches: “Get that son of a b**** off the field right now, he’s fired!”
The protests, which began in 2016 with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and are now President Donald Trump traveled to Alabama to campaign for Sen. Luther Strange. led largely by black players, are “a total disrespect of our heritage,” Trump said.
Despite Trump’s endorsement along with heavy spending by a super political action committee tied to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Strange is locked in a tight race against former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, a jurist known for opposing gay marriage and pushing unsuccessfully for the public display of the Ten Commandments.
Alabamians attending the Friday night rally were united in support of Trump, but divided over who should be the state’s next senator. And for some Alabama Republicans, the support of a president they adore wasn’t enough to dissuade them from supporting Moore.
“Vote for Roy Moore, a man of God,” Cal Zastrow repeated to the supporters filing into the Von Braun Civic Center, often getting a thumbs up or enthusiastic “I am” in reply.
One of those was Laura Skipper.
She attended rallies in support of Moore in 2003 when he was removed as Alabama chief justice.
“I am a huge supporter of President Trump. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the president, but I am a Moore supporter,” Skipper said.
Moore appears to have the support of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson — though a Carson confidant insisted his praise wasn’t an endorsement.
In a statement released by Moore’s campaign, Carson called the former judge a “fine man of proven character and integrity” who “reflects the Judeo- Christian values that were so important to the establishment of our country.”