Flake sends $100 to Ala. Dem Senate candidate
Sen. Jeff Flake, an early critic of Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, has sent a $100 check to the campaign of Moore’s Democratic opponent, Doug Jones.
Flake, R-Ariz., posted a photo of the check on Twitter with the message “County over Party,” a slogan he also wrote on the check. Flake redacted his street address and checking account number.
Moore, a former Alabama Supreme Court justice, has been accused of sexually molesting a 14-year-old girl and pursuing other underage girls aged 16 to 18 in the late 1970s and 1980s. At the time, Moore was in his 30s. Despite the
allegations, President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee are supporting him over Jones, a former U.S. attorney.
Flake, who announced Oct. 24 that he was abandoning his bid for a second Senate term, was critical of Moore even before the sex-abuse allegations, zeroing in Moore’s 2006 argument that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in Congress. Flake denounced that opinion as advocating an unconstitutional religious test.
Flake’s gesture got a mixed reaction from his fellow Twitter users. “$100? Dude, c’mon,” one wrote. Flake and Trump have blasted each other over the past several months, with Flake blaming Trump for a coarsening of the public debate and a rise in incivility in politics.
The Dec. 12 election is to fill the Senate seat vacated by former Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who resigned to become Trump’s attorney general.
Moore knocked off the GOP establishment and Trump’s choice, incumbent Sen. Luther Strange, in the Republican primary. The child-molestation allegation came up after the primary.
Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, on Tuesday said that Trump “feels that he would rather have a person that supports his agenda vs. somebody who opposes his agenda every step of the way” and “has chosen to support Moore” over Jones.
“Again, we’ve said that the allegations are concerning, and, if true, he should step aside,” Sanders said. “But we don’t have a way to validate that, and that’s something for the people of Alabama to decide, which we’ve also said, and we maintain that. And ultimately, it will come down to the people of Alabama to make that decision.”