In the wake of doubling down on his recent assertion that Republicans “do not want African-Americans and other minorities to vote,” Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) is claiming that whoever his 2020 general election opponent ends up being “will run a campaign on division” while he would never do so such a thing himself.
Jones, on an episode of ABC News’ “Powerhouse Politics” podcast last week, painted all Republicans with the same brush and claimed he will win no matter who runs against him.
“I think that the people I’m going to be – whoever ultimately I end up running against – will run a campaign on division. I am absolutely convinced of that. It’s been the history in the past,” the incumbent from Mountain Brook asserted, calling it “us against them.”
“That’s not my style,” Jones added.
The junior senator was also specifically asked by the podcast co-host about failed 2017 Republican nominee Roy Moore saying he might run against Jones again and whether that made the Democrat “secretly” happy.
“Oh, what I think is really – it’s really truly almost comical to watch,” Jones replied. “Because I have always believed that Moore is doing this more to raise money. That’s been his M.O. for years. I don’t know if he’ll run or not, but I think this is a fundraising tool for him. What’s been comical is to watch all the other Republicans, who supported him lock-step, you know, put their party over their country two years ago, are now wringing their hands going, ‘Oh my God, what are we going to do?’ Because there’s this anybody but Roy Moore thing out there. So, it’s interesting for me to watch. But I only watch it, and I don’t care.”
“It doesn’t matter to me who the opponent is,” he declared. “I’ll be back here for another term.”
In his special election victory, Jones received 23,344 votes less than Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox did in November 2018, when he lost to Gov. Kay Ivey by 327,962 votes.
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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