On Monday night, Alabama Senate candidate and Christian crusader Roy Moore—also known as “Ray,” according to Donald Trump—pulled out his gun at a campaign rally saying, “I believe in the Second Amendment.”
Alabama’s Senate race, which is shaping up to be a reunion for America’s biggest racists, has attracted significant attention from the White House. Moore, a former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice who was ousted from his seat twice for violating judicial ethics, has former White House chief strategist and current outspoken white supremacist Steve Bannon in his corner. And his opponent, former state attorney general and current Sen. Luther Strange, has Trump’s support in the race. Alabama’s Republican primary election is Tuesday.
But campaigning for Moore on Monday, Bannon called Trump “one of the most courageous individuals I’ve ever seen” and the “greatest public speaker since William Jennings Bryan.”
“Every person should get down every night and thank God that Donald Trump is president of the United States,” he said.
Mike Pence appeared at Strange’s rally Monday night, and Trump visited the state on Friday, of course making the election all about himself. If Strange loses, he said of his critics, “They’re going say, ‘Donald Trump, the President of the United States, was unable to pull his candidate across the line.’”
Moore inched ahead of Strange by about 25,000 votes in August primary. Here’s an incomplete list of things that he has said and done, by the way, as a reminder of how close this guy is to becoming a US senator:
- Famously hung a copy of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom, which cost him his chief judge position.
- Refused to follow the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling, which cost him his chief judge position again.
- As an Alabama judge he was once a speaker at a conference for white supremacist group Council of Conservative Citizens, a group that mass shooter Dylann Roof has cited as an inspiration.
- Insisted that the US Constitution was written to “foster Christianity.”
- Claimed that “abortion, sodomy, sexual perversion sweep our land.”
- Has argued that Rep. Keith Ellison should not be allowed as a member of Congress because he is Muslim, asking in an op-ed, “Can a true believer in the Islamic doctrine found in the Quran swear allegiance to our Constitution?”
- Has suggested that 9/11 was punishment from God for legitimizing sodomy and abortion.
Whoever wins the primary will have Trump’s backing in the general election.
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