By Samuel Mattison
Alabama Political Reporter
President Donald Trump will not come to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore according to a White House official’s statement on Monday.
The comments come after the president has given a lukewarm support of the candidate through tweets last week. The official also did not commit to whether the controversy surrounding Moore’s relationships with teenagers were true or not.
The allegations, first reported by the Washington Post, are that Moore pursued relationships with several teenagers when he was in his 30s in the 1970s. Two accusers have come forward alleging that Moore sexually assaulted them when they were in their teens, including one woman when she was 14 years old.
Trump, through White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said the allegations were “very serious.” Last week on the White House lawn, Trump said people need to listen to Moore’s response to the allegations.
Moore’s campaign denied all the allegations, and it insists the Washington Post’s story is a political attack on Moore’s candidacy.
Since the allegations, multiple GOP senators have called for Moore’s withdrawal, and one senator even suggested that Moore will be expelled if he does win the election. Moore’s campaign said multiple times since then that he will not step down.
With Moore and other GOP senators in a stalemate, Trump remained uncharacteristically silent about the affair. The president’s immediate reaction differed in that he didn’t ask Moore to step down and said the people of Alabama should decide who will fill the seat.
On the White House lawn last week and over Twitter on the weekend, Trump took the time to attack Moore’s opponent, Doug Jones, for his views on issues like taxes, abortion and crime. During his two-tweet tirade, Trump never mentioned Moore once.
The president’s interactions with Moore have been complicated. Trump endorsed U.S. Sen. Luther Strange, R-Ala., during the Republican primary that ended with Strange’s defeat in September.
Even at a rally for Strange, Trump mentioned that he “might have made a mistake” in endorsing the senator for office.
Trump then said he would “campaign like hell” for Moore if he won the primary. The president has not been back to the state to campaign since the Strange rally in September.
In two weeks, Alabamians will go to the polls to decide who will fill the Senate seat left vacant by Jeff Sessions appointment to attorney general.
