Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore said Friday the U.S. needs to return to religion and that Donald Trump’s presidency is a God-given opportunity to do so.
But the Republican former state judge, addressing a conference of social conservatives, said he’s grown frustrated with the lack of change under Trump.
“When Donald Trump was elected in November of 2016, shortly thereafter we had a spring of great hope in our country. If you were like me you felt a burden lifted from your soul,” he told an audience at the Values Voter Summit in Washington.
Moore, who in the past has questioned whether former President Obama was actually a U.S. citizen, called Election Day 2016 “a day of light — no more despair.”
He said of Trump’s win, “I believe God has a reason for that. He’s given us a window of opportunity to bring our country back or see it suffer the consequences.”
“But what are we seeing happen with this new nearly one-year-old tenure?” he asked. “We see not much being accomplished. Some things are good happening but we are seeing a stagnancy in Washington, D.C. Many people are frustrated and I think that’s going to have an effect in the coming 2018 elections.”
Moore won a primary election last month against appointed Sen. Luther Strange, who was supported by Trump and the Republican Party establishment. Moore was backed by former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon, who has vowed to help other candidates defeat sitting GOP senators in primaries.
Moore’s national fame comes from defying federal court rulings. He was removed as chief justice of the state supreme court in 2003 after refusing to remove a large 10 Commandments sculpture he had installed in the courthouse. He was elected chief justice again, but was suspended in 2016 for instructing officials to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage.
Now positioned to become a senator if he defeats a Democratic candidate in December, Moore suggested he would be taking his religiously infused message to Capitol Hill. Specific issues he discussed was the repeal of Obamacare — “we don’t need to replace it,” he said — his opposition to federal control of state education systems and his opposition to abortion.
“Our politicians today — and I’ve been politicking out there — never talk about morality, never talk about healing the heart by bringing back God,” Moore said.
“It’s not just a swamp, it’s quicksand. That’s what we have in Washington, we don’t have leadership, we have followership,” he said. “We must fight and appeal to God as our only hope. We’ve got to go back to God, we’ve got to go back to God, or else we’ll be gone.”
