President Trump immediately moved to distance himself from Roy Moore after his defeat in the Alabama Senate special election, tweeting Wednesday morning that he had been right to endorse Luther Strange in the primary and always knew Moore would lose.
“The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election,” said Trump. “I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/940904649728708609
Trump did campaign hard for the state’s sitting senator, “Big” Luther Strange, a placeholder appointed to fill the seat vacated by Jeff Sessions. The president visited the state and tweeted multiple times on his behalf. Trump’s support of Strange placed him at odds with Steve Bannon and the insurgent wing of his coalition.
After Moore was triumphant in the state primary, Trump changed his tune, going all in, recording a robocall and deleting old tweets expressing support for Strange.
Moore had been on his way to an easy victory in the deep-red state until the Washington Post published a story saying numerous women accused him of making sexual advances when they were underage in the 1970s, one of whom was 14 at the time. It was too much for the judge to overcome, and he was defeated by Democratic attorney Doug Jones.
On Tuesday evening, Trump issued a reluctant congratulations to Jones.
“Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory,” said Trump. “The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win. The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends!”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/940795587733151744
Moore refused to immediately concede, though the margin of his defeat was too wide to trigger an automatic recount in the state.