White House joins GOP in not backing Roy Moore

WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday joined a growing chorus of Republicans declining to formally back embattled Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore but stressing that the GOP-held seat is too important to lose.

The president and senior White House officials have declined publicly calling for Moore to drop out of the race or giving him an official endorsement. But a GOP talking point has emerged in recent days that has been repeated in various forms.

Trump “wants people in the House and the Senate who support his policies,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the president’s top spokeswoman, said during Monday’s White House press briefing.

That followed an apparent contradiction from Trump and Sanders from last week. The president criticized Sen. Al Franken amid sexual assault allegations that surfaced against the Minnesota Democrat last week; then, on Friday, Sanders said Trump is more concerned about his policies than keeping the Alabama Senate seat. Yet, the White House has criticized Franken while remaining largely mum on Moore.

Sanders’ comments were the clearest sign yet that the White House has decided against trying to force Moore from the race amid a slew of sexual assault and misconduct charges. Despite the charges, Moore remains competitive and has a legitimate shot at winning the Dec. 12 special election for the seat now occupied by appointed GOP Sen. Luther Strange.

Trump has declined to weigh in directly on the Moore matter, with Sanders and other top aides last week saying Trump expects the former judge to drop out of the race if the allegations are true. And late last week, Sanders told reporters it should be up to Alabamians, not the president, to determine whether the charges are true.

There were signs late last week and then earlier on Monday that the Republican Party — including the Trump White House — was preparing the new line.

The first senior official to publicly say that while she has no reason to doubt Moore’s accusers but views the Senate seat as too important to hand to Democrats was Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey.

“We need to have a Republican in the United States Senate to vote on things like Supreme Court justices, other appointments the Senate has to confirm and make major decisions,” Ivey said Friday. “So that’s what I plan to do, vote for the Republican nominee Roy Moore.”