Here’s the president’s message to Alabama voters ahead of Tuesday’s special election for the U.S. Senate: “Get out and vote for Roy Moore.” That’s what Donald Trump said Friday in Pensacola, just across the state line in Florida and well within the Mobile media market.
And it was the exact opposite of the message from the most senior elected Republican in Alabama, Senator Richard Shelby. Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Shelby said he’d “rather see a Republican win” but that he “couldn’t vote for Roy Moore, I didn’t vote for Roy Moore.”
Shelby said repeatedly that he wrote in another Republican on his absentee ballot and that he found the claims made by multiple women that Moore pursued them for romantic relationships when he was a grown man and they were teenagers credible. The claim from one woman, Leigh Corfman, that Moore molested her when she was 14 years old, was the “tipping point” for Shelby, the senior senator told CNN.
“I didn’t vote for the Democrat [Doug Jones],” Shelby went on. “But I couldn’t vote for Roy Moore. The state of Alabama deserves better. I think we’ve got a lot of great Republicans who could have won and carried the state beautifully and served in the Senate honorably.”
“I think the Republican party can do better,” Shelby added.
By Sunday afternoon, the Jones campaign had turned Shelby’s words into a pair of ads. The idea: show Republicans still on-the-fence about pulling the lever for Roy Moore that it’s okay to divert their vote elsewhere—or maybe even not vote at all. That’s about the best shot Jones has at winning Tuesday, judging by the polls. The current RealClear Politics poll average gives Moore a nearly 4-point lead, and the Republican has had an upward trend since Thanksgiving, when he and Jones were effectively tied.
One More Thing—Roy Moore’s small-but-solid lead over Doug Jones is the biggest reason why Trump has gone all-in for Moore. Besides the endorsement, the Pensacola rally, and the reentry by the Trump-controlled Republican National Committee into the race, Trump has cut a robocall on behalf of Moore. All this after Trump spent the weeks following the initial Washington Post story waffling about his support for Moore. What changed? Trump is telling those close to him that he thinks Moore will win, and for the president, that’s what matters.
The future of the party, the revulsion from nearly all of Moore’s prospective Senate colleagues, the fact that Trump’s own daughter Ivanka has said she believes the women accusing Moore of improper sexual contact—all of those concerns can be cast aside if Moore wins. Expect Trump to take full credit for a Moore victory. And if Jones pulls it out? Trump will be the first to remind America that, after all, he endorsed Luther Strange (who would have won easily!) first.
Trump-Foe-Turned-Friend Tweet of the Day
Trump International Golf Club is a spectacular golf course.
Great day of fun playing with @POTUS @realDonaldTrump. https://t.co/92Xjk8d8B2
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 10, 2017
Mark It Down—“We will respect anything that the two parties come together on.” —United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, on whether East Jerusalem could remain the seat of a Palestinian government, December 10, 2017
Must-Read of the Day—An in-depth look from the New York Times’s best-sourced White House reporters on how television and Twitter loom large in President Trump’s average day. Here’s an excerpt:
United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley confirmed Sunday that the Trump administration will not seek to prevent the U.S. Olympic team from participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. Asked on Fox News Sunday whether America was sending a full team, Haley responded, “Yes, we are.”
She continued: “We’re doing in this Olympics what we’ve done in every single Olympics. We’ve always talked about keeping our athletes safe. This is no different. And we are looking at the circumstances just to make sure we’re doing everything we can.”
Haley unexpectedly suggested that America might not field an Olympic team last Wednesday, saying it was an “open question” due to possible security threats. Press secretary Sarah Sanders further muddied the waters the next day, saying “no official decision had been made.”
“That will be a decision made closer to time,” Sanders said.
Later that day, Sanders tweeted that “the U.S. looks forward to participating in the Winter Olympics in South Korea.”
A spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee, which is a non-profit that does not receive federal funding, said they had “not had any discussions, either internally or with our government partners,” about the possibility of not participating in the 2018 games.
“We plan on supporting two full delegations in PyeongChang,” the spokesman said.
Non-Trump Tweet of the Day
A boy asked his bitcoin-investing dad for 1 bitcoin for his birthday.
Dad: What? $15,554??? $14,354 is a lot of money! What do you need $16,782 for anyway?
— Ran NeuNer (@cryptomanran) December 8, 2017
Mueller Watch—From my colleague Andrew Egger this weekend: “Did Paul Manafort Violate the Judge’s Gag Order?”
Song of the Day—“Windfall” by Son Volt
