MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Judge Roy Moore, the runaway frontrunner for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate in Alabama, told Breitbart News exclusively here that he fully supports the Second Amendment and wants to see the U.S. Senate vote immediately on national reciprocity.
“I believe that we should have national reciprocity and I also believe that we should vote on these things,” Moore said in an exclusive interview over lunch with Breitbart News before Labor Day here in Montgomery. “You eliminate the filibuster and we’re going to find out where people stand. Right now, you don’t know where people stand. They get NRA endorsements and then hide behind a rule that allows our right to keep and bear arms to be violated, and I think that’s a problem with the rule. Again, what I think we should do is remove that rule and then vote on these issues. I stand firmly with Gun Owners of America which has endorsed me, and BamaCarry right here in Alabama which has endorsed me. I support the right to keep and bear arms and hopefully my wife is keeping her weapon in her purse right now.”
Technically, the NRA has endorsed Moore’s opponent, the failing establishment-backed candidate Luther Strange. Strange is failing to gain any significant traction in the race after the Aug. 15 runoff, as Moore has a skyrocketing lead over Strange by more than double digits in most polls.
Strange is backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his affiliated organization Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), which is running millions of dollars of attack ads against him that have not been working per the recent polls. Strange’s decision to accept help from SLF, which is run by Karl Rove acolyte Steven Law, and his decision to hire Karl Rove’s ex-chief of staff onto his campaign are viewed by President Donald Trump, White House sources tell Breitbart News, as an insult. Strange’s association with Rove’s brood of GOP consultants has so insulted President Trump, sources close to the president say, that he has withheld support for Strange in the second round of voting ahead of the Sept. 26 GOP primary runoff.
But while Strange’s suffering campaign has the support of the NRA, he is not publicly pushing for a U.S. Senate vote on national reciprocity. His previous support for the filibuster rule that McConnell uses to prevent legislation from receiving a vote in the Senate without the support of 60 senators endangered the effort to see national reciprocity happen.
Strange technically cosponsored a bill from Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) pushing for national reciprocity.
“Just as I did when I was the state Attorney General, I am ready to fight for Alabamians’ Second Amendment rights,” Strange said when cosponsoring the legislation. “This commonsense legislation makes sure that the right of law-abiding gun owners to protect themselves does not stop at the state line. I look forward to working with my colleagues to get this important fix across the finish line.”
But at the time he signed his name on the bill, in early March 2017, Strange still backed the filibuster rule that prevents the bill from ever receiving a vote in the U.S. Senate. Strange very publicly supported McConnell on the filibuster, and pushed for its preservation in public statements and with his signature on a letter to McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Strange has since demonstrated his lack of resolve on the filibuster by withdrawing his support for it, and publicly stating he is removing his name from the letter he signed to McConnell and Schumer—one of the most significant flip-flops in a short amount of time in U.S. Senate history.
Moore, meanwhile, is endorsed by Gun Owners of America—whose chairman Tim Macy says that for the Second Amendment to be truly secure and for national reciprocity to actually happen, Alabama must send Moore to the senate and send Strange home.
“Judge Moore has long been an articulate — and uncompromising — champion for gun rights,”Macy said in endorsing Moore. “And he will fight just as hard for gun owners in the U.S. Senate. There are few men I trust more than Judge Moore.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.