| | | | Donald Trump just did Roy Moore a big favor | | | And on the seventh day since returning from Asia, Donald Trump broke his silence on Roy Moore. "He denies it," Trump said of the Alabama Republican Senate nominee, who has insisted the allegations by several women that he pursued relationships with them when they were between 14 and 19 are totally false. "Look, he denies it."
Trump's defense of Moore stands in stark contrast to the approach taken by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a number of other Republican senators, who have said they cannot support Moore's candidacy and that he should withdraw from the race.
Far from condemning Moore or telling him to get out of the race, Trump's comments amount to an all-but-endorsement of the controversial former Alabama state Supreme Court chief justice.
While Trump did not go as far as to say he didn't believe the women accusing Moore of misconduct, his emphasis on Moore's denials amounts to the same thing.
The other argument Trump made in his comments about Moore, essentially, is this: Moore is a Republican. Doug Jones is a Democrat. And party matters more than anything else.
Here's the key part of Trump's quote on that bit of tribalism: "I can tell you for a fact we do not need somebody who's going to be bad on crime, bad on borders, bad for the military, bad for the Second Amendment."
So, whatever Moore's flaws may be, he's still way better than a Democrat because he will vote in line with the Trump agenda.
Again, that runs directly counter to the message from many establishment Republicans -- that it isn't worth sacrificing principle solely to hold control of a single Senate seat.
'We are in trouble as a party if we continue to follow both Roy Moore and Donald Trump," Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who has been critical of Trump and is retiring in 2018, said Monday. "I just don't think that is the direction for the party."
The long and short of it is this: Everything Trump said Tuesday afternoon about Moore and the Alabama Senate race runs directly opposite to what the leaders within the national GOP have said in recent weeks. Literally everything.
The boost Moore will get from Trump's comments will make it that much harder to remove the controversial judge from the race or to organize a serious write-in campaign against him. And Trump's appeal to tribalism -- any Republican is better than any Democrat solely by dint of being a Republican -- will further worsen what is already the deepest polarization in Congress and the country in modern American history.
Happy Thanksgiving, Republicans!
-- Chris | | A new Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday asked participants: Would you still consider voting for a candidate accused of sexual harassment by multiple women?
CNN's Ryan Struyk writes:
Are sexual harassment accusations from multiple women a deal-breaker? No, according to a plurality of Republican voters in a Quinnipiac poll out today. Forty-three percent of them said they'd still consider voting for a candidate accused of sexual harassment vs. 41% who said they wouldn't. (Though, it's worth noting, President Donald Trump, who faced sexual harassment allegations himself, received the votes of 88% of Republicans in November.) On the flip side, only 12% of Democrats said they would consider casting their ballots for someone who has been accused. | | "Wow, big bird."
That's what President Trump said as he approached 36-pound turkey Drumstick, before petting it several times. "Drumstick, you are hereby pardoned."
It's become part of the annual tradition of the White House Thanksgiving turkey ritual: voting to see which of the two official birds will be pardoned, and which will be the alternate. This year's winner was "Drumstick," who garnered 60% support over rival "Wishbone," who earned 40%.
Read more about today's pardon in CNN's story by Kate Bennett. | | CNN's Eric Bradner reports:
"The Democratic National Committee is struggling to raise funds. The party posted its lowest total for the month of October in at least 15 years. The DNC raised $3.9 million in October, far short of the $9.2 million raised during the month by the Republican National Committee.
"The RNC has now raised $113.2 million over the 2017 calendar year and has $42.5 million in the bank and no debt. The DNC, meanwhile, has raised $55 million this year. It has $5 million cash on hand and owes $3.2 million in debts.
"It was the worst October for Democrats dating back to 2003 -- the first year the national parties were required to file monthly finance reports. The low totals reflect the difficulty the DNC has had raising money since former President Barack Obama left office."
Read more in Eric's story here. | | CNN's Betsy Klein writes:
"Building on a series of international visits and meetings here in the United States with world leaders, Ivanka Trump will lead the US delegation to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which is being co-hosted by the United States and India. The first daughter and senior adviser to the President was invited to the summit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visited the White House in June. Speaking to reporters on a conference call Tuesday, Trump called the summit 'a testament to the strong friendship' of the two countries, as well as an event to spotlight 'the growing economic and security partnership between our two nations.'"
She will travel to Hyderabad just after the Thanksgiving holiday. Read more in Betsy's story here. | | On Monday night, CNN's Chris Cuomo took on a difficult task: Interviewing talker-in-chief LaVar Ball about his son's arrest in China and the role -- or lack thereof -- that President Trump played in the release of LiAngelo Ball as well as two other UCLA basketball players
Chris rounded up Ball's 39 most amazing lines about Donald Trump. No. 1 on the list? "It's not like he was in the US and said, 'OK, there's three kids in China, I need to go over there and get them.' That wasn't the thought process, right?"
Read the full list here. | | | Speaking of Ball, follow his lead and give us a (virtual) thumbs up by telling everyone you know to subscribe to The Point. | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Follow this link for daily coverage of the world's top stories, savvy market insights, an insider's look into the media, and more. Our authors for The Point are Chris Cillizza and Saba Hamedy. Send your tips and thoughts via email to Chris or Saba. Follow on Twitter: Chris and Saba. | | | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment