Is Donald Trump stumping for Luther Strange because he thinks Roy Moore is soft on crime?

Every single one of Trump’s tweets in support of Strange is a combination of those three factors. Big Luther, as the president is fond of calling him, stands a little under 7 feet tall, consistently votes pro-Trump, and developed a reputation as an aggressive prosecutor.

A recent Washington Post report detailed how West Wing staff and Senate leadership teamed up to convince the president to rally for Strange in Alabama four days ahead of a primary runoff against Judge Roy Moore. But how do you convince a president who cares more about winning than anything else to come to the aid of a candidate losing by eight points?

Maybe you talk about crime. Other than immigration and trade, the president regularly raves about “law and order.” On that point, Moore thinks much differently than Trump.

In the court room, Moore regularly sought mercy whenever possible, so much so that during his first race for Supreme Court in 2000, his opponents slammed him for being weak on crime.

Moore’s opponents slammed him for reducing the sentence of Kathleen Brown Strickland, a woman who sold drugs near a school yard in 1994 according to the Birmingham News, from a seven-year sentence to probation. And they attacked him for allowing Joann Miller Black to stay on probation even after she violated probation for trafficking cocaine.

And during at least two other cases in the 1990s, Moore passed on the death penalty. In 1995, Moore upheld a jury’s recommendation of life in prison for Veronica Macon, 27, who stabbed her ex-boyfriend’s daughter to death, when he could have overridden them and imposed a death sentence under the law at the time. He did the same thing the next year in 1996 for Tempo Peraita, 19, who shot and killed three fast food employees in a Popeye’s freezer.

Whether or not Moore’s judicial record plays into the race is hard to say. So far the election has been a proxy war between establishment and insurgent Republicans, not a debate on the issues. Alabama voters were more than happy with the judge’s record, voting to send him to the state Supreme Court twice.

But Trump seems different. The law and order president, the man who recently pardoned notorious Arizona ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio, could’ve been convinced that Moore was soft on crime. Why else would he fly to Alabama on Friday and risk a humiliation this late in the game?

A Moore spokeswoman didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.