Roy Moore is no longer a thing. Republicans need to understand this, Democrats need to understand this, and the media need to come to grips with this. There are zero LEGITIMATE reasons to be asking Republican candidates if they supported Roy Moore in the 2017 Senate race. They did. They all did. The only reason this keeps coming up is so the media can imply Republican candidates supported a “child molester” for U.S. Senate. Here’s recent Pulitzer Prize winner John Archibald’s question at the latest debate in Birmingham:
“And there were many people in and outside the party who said that they would support [Roy Moore] no matter whether the accusations were true or not because politics was more important than that. What is your reaction to that and did you support Roy Moore?”
Why this matters: This is not a question for a debate, this is a narrative being created. No one thinks these men might not have voted for Roy Moore. There were not “many” people who said they would support Roy Moore EVEN if he did the things he was accused of. That’s inaccurate — there were a few. Almost all of Moore’s voters didn’t believe the reports … why? Because they don’t trust the media. Again, largely, Moore’s voters did not believe the accusations. Voters in the room shouted out that “we are passed that” and “Roy Moore is not here”, but Archibald doesn’t care because he is crafting his post-primary narrative in which whoever the GOP nominee is, they will be representing the party of Roy Moore, even though the reason Moore lost is that most Republicans stayed home. Roy Moore’s loss in 2017 was not an embrace of Roy Moore; it was a rejection.The details:
— The idea the ALGOP is Roy Moore’s party is now an argument rooted in reality.
— Roy Moore lost to now-Senator Doug Jones by about 21,000 votes.
— While much was made of Jones’ turnout machine, Moore lost because the GOP stayed home.
— Moore’s 640,000 votes under-performed Trump’s 1.3 million votes in 2016 by roughly 50 percent, while Jones turned out more than 90 percent of Clinton’s votes.
@TheDaleJackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a conservative talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN in Huntsville.
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