Shock for Trump as sex-scandal pal loses stronghold
DONALD Trump suffered a bitter blow yesterday after a controversial candidate he backed to win a key US Senate seat in Alabama was defeated.
The President had endorsed Republican Roy Moore in the deeply conservative southern state despite claims he had molested teenagers.
The Democrats took victory in the state for the first time in 25 years. Doug Jones managed to snatch the win largely because more affluent and educated Republicans refused to vote for Mr Moore following recent allegations about his private life.
In addition, many African-Americans turned out to vote Democrat, appalled by Mr Moore’s comments on race, including his claim that the US was last ‘great’ when slavery was legal.
Mr Moore, an evangelical Christian former judge, refused to concede defeat and demanded a recount after he lost by 1.5 per cent – or 20,000 votes.
He said: ‘Realise that when the vote is this close that it’s not over. We also know that God is always in control.’
The 70-year-old denies allegations from eight women that he sexually abused or coerced them when they were teenagers and he was a prosecutor twice their age.
Mr Trump rejected the advice of close advisers and endorsed him.
The defeat has cut the Republican majority in the US Senate to one, and has severely damaged the credibility of a president who hates to lose. Critics say his failure to persuade voters even in Republican strongholds like Alabama shows the limits of his power.
Yesterday, an unusually gracious Mr Trump congratulated Mr Jones on a ‘hard-fought victory’, adding: ‘A win is a win’.
He also tried to distance himself from Mr Moore by claiming he had originally supported rival Republican candidate Luther Strange, and so had actually been proved correct by the election result. He wrote on Twitter: ‘I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!’
White House insiders also blamed the President’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon for persuading him to back Mr Moore.
Mr Bannon, who has been accused of encouraging white supremacists, had told Mr Trump that his core supporters were behind Mr Moore. Republican fundraiser Steven Law said: ‘Not only did Steve Bannon cost us a critical Senate seat in one of the most Republican states in the country, but he also dragged the President into his fiasco.’
Mr Moore, a divisive figure who critics say is an anti-Semitic, Islamophobic bigot, was pictured riding on horseback to cast his vote in Gallant, Alabama. He once pulled out a pistol on stage to show his support for gun rights and has also called Islam a ‘false religion’. Mr Moore’s supporters countered that senior Republicans in Washington were to blame for deserting him and ‘colluding’ with the Democrats to undermine a pro-Trump candidate.
Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer said Mr Moore was an ‘awful candidate’, adding: ‘Things are looking better and better.’
Analysts warn of the growing unease among affluent Republicans over Mr Trump’s radical politics. Jeff Flake, a rebel senator who helped the Jones campaign, tweeted: ‘Decency wins.’