Donald Trump screws up and hands the Resistance the chance to use Roy Moore to destroy him
It was already a moral imperative that alleged child molester Roy Moore be defeated in the Alabama Senate race. A man like that simply cannot be allowed to serve at the highest levels of government. Donald Trump, an admitted serial sexual predator, had been smart enough to keep a slight distance from the Moore debacle – until today. Now Donald Trump has screwed up and handed the Resistance an opportunity to use Moore to destroy Trump.
So many Republicans in Congress have come out against their own party’s nominee Roy Moore, with some of them even going so far as to call for his Democratic opponent Doug Jones to win, that it’ll hardly feel like a blow to the GOP if Moore loses. Trump had been taking a different approach by more or less pretending Moore didn’t exist. But then today Trump essentially endorsed Moore while speaking to a group of reporters, pointing out that Moore denies the allegations, and attacking Jones’ positions on the issues. This changes everything.
Donald Trump just married himself to Roy Moore’s fate. Suddenly, in addition to being a horrific tale of child sexual molestation and depravity, the Alabama Senate race is now also a referendum on Donald Trump’s remaining political influence. Trump endorsed Republican candidate Luther Strange in the Alabama primary race, but that failed to push Strange to victory in a competitive race. Trump endorsed Ed Gillespie in the Virginia race for Governor, but Gillespie also lost badly in what should have been a winnable race.
Each time this happens, it weakens Donald Trump even further. His own party sees he can no longer motivate his own base by endorsing candidates, and that he can unwittingly motivate the Resistance to target anyone he endorses. Now that Trump has endorsed Roy Moore, the Resistance merely needs to defeat Moore in order to deliver yet another debilitating blow to what’s left of Trump’s disintegrating political capital. Keep this up, and the GOP will decide it needs to throw Trump overboard completely before the midterm elections heat up.
