White House counselor Kellyanne Conway argued Monday that Alabama’s Democratic senate candidate, Doug Jones, wouldn’t support the Republican agenda, but stopped short of saying Republicans should vote for embattled GOP candidate Roy Moore on Dec. 12.
“Doug Jones in Alabama, folks, don’t be fooled. He will be a vote against tax cuts. He is weak on crime. Weak on borders. He’s strong on raising your taxes. He is terrible for property owners,” Conway said on Fox News. “I just want everybody to know Doug Jones, nobody ever says his name and pretends he is some kind of conservative Democrat in Alabama. And he’s not.”
When asked if that means the White House wants Republicans to vote for Roy Moore, who has been accused by several women of sexual assault and harassment while they were in their teens, Conway said Doug Jones is a “doctrinaire liberal.”
When asked again if that means the White House still wants Roy Moore, Conway didn’t answer directly, but said the White House wants the votes in the Senate to pass tax reform.
“I’m telling you that we want the votes in the Senate to get this tax bill through,” she said.
Some in the media said those remarks were a signal that the White House still wants Republicans to vote for Moore, which is likely the best way to keep the seat in Republican hands.
But when asked if Trump would campaign for Moore, Conway said, “there is no plan to do that.”
Conway’s remarks are the latest indication of the mess Moore has made for Republicans at the national level. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., noted last week that he wants to keep the seat in the GOP’s hands, since his party has a slim 52-48 seat lead in the Senate.
McConnell and other Republicans have talked openly about expelling Moore from the Senate should he win his race against Jones, based on the allegations raised against him by women in his home state.
But it may not come to that. Jones has been polling ahead of Moore since the allegations were revealed this month. Last week, the White House said it was up to voters in Alabama to decide how to vote in light of those allegations.
