President Donald Trump’s pick in Alabama’s Senate special election may have been defeated, but the president claims it’s still a victory for him.
Trump on Wednesday morning said that Republican candidate Roy Moore’s loss was proof that “I was right” that Moore couldn’t win. Trump backed incumbent Sen. Luther Strange (R) in the GOP primary, which Moore won.
The president also claimed “the deck was stacked” against Moore, who lost a seat held by Republicans for more than two decades after weeks of battling sexual misconduct allegations. The accusations, first reported by The Washington Post, didn’t come out until weeks after the Republican primary.
Trump on Tuesday night congratulated Democrat Doug Jones on a “hard fought victory.” But Moore later refused to concede and said he planned to demand a recount.
Trump endorsed Moore earlier this month in spite of a mounting list of sexual harassment and assault allegations against the candidate, including child molestation.
Moore denied the allegations and continued campaigning, even after many prominent Republicans denounced him and called on him to quit the race. It was a strategy reminiscent of the one Trump adopted after he was caught on video bragging about groping women in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump never physically campaigned with Moore, but did record a robocall in the campaign’s final days and tweet pro-Moore and anti-Jones messaging on several occasions.