In an interview that aired on the Alabama Cable Network earlier this week, Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Roy Moore talked about how some in Washington, DC immediately turned on him once allegations surfaced that he acted inappropriately or engaged in sexual misconduct decades earlier.
After winning the GOP nod in September, Moore told ACN’s “Reality Check” host Scott Beason that he had gone to Washington, DC as a forgiving person given he had been blackballed as a GOP primary candidate and reportedly had $30 million spent against him in that primary by members of his party.
“I’m a forgiving person, and I thought after they spent $30 million wrongfully – they’ve never done this before. Thirty-million dollars is a lot of money. And they had cut off my fundraisers after they had stopped the consultants that had voluntarily come down prior to the election and wanted to represent me. And as soon as I got in it, they called down and stopped them. And they went back to Washington and actually represented my opponent. They had done so many things in this campaign, and we won. It was a victory. People in Alabama recognize it as a victory. So, I went up with great expectations to let them know I was a forgiving person. They were very nice. They came around, talked and did things. But as soon as I got and as soon as this story came out, immediately, if not before, they dropped me, and they turned against me and immediately condemned me without anything.”
Moore acknowledged that after defeating the so-called Washington establishment in the primary process, they were not going to stop.
“I think it’s more in common sense – once you spend $30 million and you’ve done it from the highest levels of government and the Washington establishment failed, they failed – and they don’t take that easy, and they don’t stop,” he added. “If they can defeat you afterwards, some would rather have the Democrat in.”
The former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice explained that much of the effort to stop him was aimed to prevent a “conservative rebel” from taking the seat formerly held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“I think the establishment consistently – both Democrats and Republicans – want to keep the same people in there and to make the same privileges and power that they have, and to keep their job and they don’t want what CNN proposed and McConnell said, ‘a conservative rebel.’ They didn’t want a conservative rebel they couldn’t manage. And you know, I’ve never been manageable. Don’t plan to be manageable and when I go to Washington, I’ll take the knowledge of God and the knowledge of the Constitution of the United States to the people there and show them they’ve got to follow this document. It’s the form of government that we have, and it’s based upon a particular God. And if it were not, we’re going to lose our morality, as we’ve been losing it. We’re going to lose our rights that He’s given us.”
Moore faces former Clinton U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee, in the special election for the seat currently occupied by Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL).
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.