President Trump, in a pair of tweets on Sunday, reiterated his support for — and effective endorsement of — Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who stands accused of sexually harassing and/or assaulting multiple teenage girls. Though Trump avoided mentioning Moore by name on Sunday, he instead endorsed the importance of preventing Moore’s opponent, Democrat Doug Jones, from being elected on December 12. In other words, Trump continues to make — at best — a call to vote for the lesser of two evils, and in the president’s mind, it is less evil to be an accused sexual predator of teenage girls than a generic Democrat:
In a follow-up tweet, Trump revisited his ultimately unsuccessful endorsement of Roy Moore’s primary opponent, Luther Strange, in what may have been an acknowledgment that Trump went against his instincts (to support Moore) then, and won’t do so again:
GOP senator John Thune subsequently suggested a path-not-taken for Trump, since it is in fact possible to oppose Jones without tacitly endorsing a man who was reportedly banned from a shopping mall because he wouldn’t stop hitting on minors:
But that would require Trump to reject Moore, which the president, who has also been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, has shown zero interest in doing. Sunday was not the first time Trump has essentially endorsed Moore, after all. He attacked Jones along similar lines last week, while also emphasizing that Moore has denied that he has sexually assaulted or harassed teenagers, and so, “You have to listen to him also.” On Saturday, the New York Times reported that, according to Trump’s advisers, the president still seems inclined to believe that Moore is innocent.
