Looks like Roy Moore, with Steve Bannon backing him has crushed establishment hack Luther Strange, who was “endorsed” by Trump. What will be the fallout on morons like Mitch McConnell?
https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/senate-special-election-primary-runoff-alabama?mcubz=1
Trump Stumped As Bannon-Backed Roy Moore Wins Alabama Republican Primary By Landslide
by Tyler Durden
Sep 27, 2017 3:28 AM
In a serious rebuke for President Trump (and perhaps moreso for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell), ousted judge and alt-right favorite Roy Moore has won the Alabama Republican Primary by a landslide.
The Steve Bannon-backed candidate, who defied court orders to remove the Ten Commandments from his courtroom and refused to recognize gay marriage after the Supreme Court’s June 2015 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, is leading by 9.6 points with 92% of the votes counted…
Interestingly, former Trump deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka, who backed Moore, said despite Trump backing the establishment favorite, a Moore victory strengthens Trump…
“But guess what happens – when Judge Moore wins on Tuesday, it will strengthen the president because now he’ll be able to go to the establishment GOP – to the swamp dwellers and say, ‘Hey guys, we are back on my agenda. This wasn’t worth it.’
So, the president is going to stay – he’s going to return to the Make America Great Again agenda. We just have to help him, and we’re going to do it from the outside by endorsing people like Judge Moore.”
* * *
As we detailed earlier, after weeks of increasingly bitter and expensive campaigning pitching Steve Bannon-backed former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore (well-known anti-establismentarian) against President Trump-backed Senator Luther Strange (establishmentarian), judgment day has finally arrived.
Heading in the polls had Moore a strong favorite (but Strange showing well in recent weeks)
With polls having closed at 8pmET, early results favored Moore heavily.
However, as Politco reported this evening, President Donald Trump began distancing himself from a Luther Strange loss before ballots were even cast, telling conservative activists Monday night the candidate he’s backing in Alabama’s GOP Senate primary was likely to lose — and suggesting he’d done everything he could do given the circumstances.
Trump told conservative activists who visited the White House for dinner on Monday night that he’d underestimated the political power of Roy Moore, the firebrand populist and former judge who’s supported by Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon, according to three people who were there.
And Trump gave a less-than full-throated endorsement during Friday’s rally.
While he called Strange “a real fighter and a real good guy,” he also mused on stage about whether he made a “mistake” by backing Strange and committed to campaign “like hell” for Moore if he won.
Trump was encouraged to pick Strange before the August primary by son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner as well as other aides, White House officials said. He was never going to endorse Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks, who has at times opposed Trump’s agenda, and knew little about Moore, officials said.
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HotAir.com explained earlier how to interpret the result (and the likely fallout)…
If Strange shocks the world, it’ll be Trump’s crowning glory as president (so far).
He’ll be credited for singlehandedly dragging a lackluster establishmentarian past a well-known populist in a very red state.
His influence over the Republican base will be seen as total and unassailable.
Not even the combined forces of Steve Bannon, Sarah Palin, Sebastian Gorka, Nigel Farage, and Breitbart could counter the gravitational pull of the MAGA north star, as it turned out.
If Strange doesn’t shock the world, if he goes down in flames despite Trump’s best efforts for him over the past two weeks, populism, not Trumpism, will be seen as dominant among the base.
Bannon will exult (privately) that he and Moore taught Trump a hard lesson, that he can’t expect rank and file Republicans to line up behind him unless he sticks to a populist agenda.
Depending on the margin, Trump may be left sweating out a way to spin the defeat.
If Strange loses by a few points, it’s easy — “Big Luther got close with my help, ran a good race!”
If he loses by 16, not so easy. Trump will blame McConnell and voter unhappiness at Senate paralysis on ObamaCare but a landslide loss for his guy is a rebuke any way you slice it.
* * *
The author may be over thinking this one. I am a trump supporter And sent $ to moore. Strange is a servant of Mcconnell, ryan, rove branch of the uniparty. I believe they and the rest of the “never Trump” gop establishment that are allowing the FBI witch hunt pretty much have trump captive. They control the flow of information to him. The only trump appointees they have confirmed are those they demanded for their support, like mcmasters. Mcmasters was pushed by mccain for the position he has. So he endorses who they tell him is his friend.
They are the same group that used donor money to destroy and primary tea party republicans, thwart any attempt at border control, approve trades deals and offshoring, and spend like drunken sailors. The media begrudgingly protects them because they always “reluctantly” give the dems whatever they want.
As part of the base that they despise , We pushed trump into office because he offer resistance to the cheap labor/ offshoring Donor GOP. I still support him too, but he’s a means , not an end.
I’m glad Moore won.
I wonder how many of the never Trump crowd ended up voting for him strictly because Trump (rather weakly) gave Strange an endorsement and they were thinking they were voting against Trump?
very few because i doubt there are that many never trumpers in bama–
i did not check the #s but once the primaries were over i suspect the base got behind him–
remember,sessions backed trump–
I find it strange that anyone actually believed Trump’s endorsement of Strange was anything but a chess move.
Tampa, Trump only got about 43% of the vote in the Alabama Republican primaries, that means over half of the Republicans there wanted someone else.
that makes sense anon-how many of us considered trump our 1st choice?
also,bama is the heart of the bible belt-between some of the candidates professing christianity and trump’s past,many voters were squeamish about trump but once it was r vs d,what were the % s?
i would have voted for moore but he needs to be watched carefully–
from what i understand,he favors a concon,which is a bad thing–
A concon is a growing movement.
Most of its proponents don’t even begin to understand the implications of one.
As did most of the proponents of the original Philadelphia Convention in 1787 that ended up with an entirely different government.
I doubt we will come up with something better than we had this time. Men such as those that wrote our Constitution at Philadelphia no longer exist in today’s America.
agree 100% anon-
at one time i thought it was a good idea but too many things could happen,and not many of them would be good–
there is no true way to bind the delegates,these states that are considering criminal sanctions 4 concon delegates who do not vote the way the legislature directs them to are tinkling in the wind-
and how often do true conservative/libertarian types get the best of the republicrat lefties–
they might come out of a concon with no bill of rights,mandatory worship of the god of gay rights,odin,or some other such garbage–
A message to POTUS:
We support the MAGA policies and principles of the 2016 election. We do not trust ANY man. We trust what they do.
I suppose now we are going to have to endure a bunch of media shouting about the Russians electing Moore too?
Also, I suspect that Bannon is following through on his parting statement from the Whitehouse, that he will do more good outside than in. This is probably the first, in a series of hits that Bannon is going to make to the GOP establishment. Trump, unfortunately can’t do a lot with that stupid sheeple hunt that Mueller is doing. But Bannon, OTOH has no restrictions. he can go full barrel against the “establishment” and hurt them bad. Let the games begin…
Ya’ know,
Independent prosecutor investigations are normally instituted to investigate known crimes.
No known crime has been stated to date, so this investigation is not really a legitimate investigation at all.
No one ever seems to mention that, just keep screaming more and more about imaginary crimes that have no evidence to show they have even been committed much less evidence that anyone on the Trump side was involved in them.
Hillary, OTOH, still gets a free ride for actual crimes that have been proven to have occurred with her involvement in them. Same thing for the Wasserman Schultz/Awan thing, no doubt about a serious crime having been committed and their (probably conspiratorial) involvement in it.
I think I said it on a previous thread, this is the best possible result in this case. McConnell, McCain and the RINOs took a hard hit here. ALL their money, influence and determination made no difference; Roy Moore won against them all. RINOs are in season from now on, until they are extinct or numbers reduced to irrelevance.
We may yet take back the Repub party from the RINOs and their big money donors. If we manage it, the Demos will implode from sectarianism, loss of cohesion and lack of relevance. THEN we can try to reverse the growth of government, and suffer the Fed Reserve failure that’s coming along with the depression, and start to do the right things again.
Yeah, I’m dreaming, but we just got ANOTHER victory for the grassroots. We need a lot more Moores, but its a good start.
Roy Moore, like Bannon/Breitbart, is a supporter of zionism:
“We must remember that Israel is the United States’ most important ally and partner in the Middle East and should reject agreements or policies that undermine Israel’s security. We should pass the Taylor Force Act and move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.”
https://www.roymoore.org/Positions/