Breitbart’s Pollak: Alabama Senate Race is Referendum on ‘New Trump’

Breitbart News Senior Editor at Large Joel B. Pollak told MSNBC on Monday that the U.S. Senate runoff in Alabama had become a referendum on President Donald Trump’s new turn towards working with Democrats.

“I think the president is trying to sell the new agenda. You could call it the New Coke.”

Pollak added: “He’s working with Democrats on this DACA deal, and so what started out … as a fight between insurgents and establishment is now a referendum on Trump’s new approach. And I think you’ll find that the grass roots, the Trump supporters, who are coming out for Roy Moore have a very different view from those in Washington who are pouring millions into the Luther Strange campaign.”

Former Ted Cruz spokesperson Rick Tyler had a similar analysis. “What’s going on in Alabama right now is conservative Republicans — which is largely all of Alabama’s voter base — they are tired of the establishment pick their candidates, and this is what has happened in this particular race. … This is the proxy fight in the Republican Party between the establishment and the insurgents. And Trump, for some reason, I would have to say, is on the wrong side.”

Asked why Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon seemed to be “going to war” with Trump, Pollak responded:

I would think that Steve, as he said, when he left the White House, wants to support the Trump agenda. You remember the whiteboard that he had in the West Wing of all the campaign promises that Trump had made? … I think Steve’s impression would be — and I can’t speak for him — certainly the impression at Breitbart and throughout the conservative grass roots is that ‘We’re helping Donald Trump’s agenda by defeating the establishment candidate.’ That’s what people would say to you, because Trump’s agenda is what people voted for him to enact. And the establishment in Washington, including the Republican establishment, doesn’t want him to do all of those things.

Moore currently leads Strange in the polls by eight percent, though the race is thought to be tightening.

According to Politico, establishment Republicans fear that a victory for Moore would inspire a wave of primary challenges to establishment-backed candidates.

Pollak summarized: “The Republican is likely to win in the final election in December. But it’s a question of what kind of Republican will that be? Will it be a Republican who supports the original Trump campaign agenda or one who supports the ‘New Coke’ — the one who supports Mitch McConnell and the direction Trump is taking with the Democrats?”