CNN Political Director David Chalian believes President Donald Trump signaled his support for Alabama GOP Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore on Tuesday because Trump does not want to be against the “Bannon wing” that fervently supports the agenda that got Trump elected.
Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon has been championing Trump’s economic nationalist agenda from coast to coast since leaving the White House.
Chalian said Trump “doesn’t want to be crosswise with his base” because Trump knows that all of the energy is with the “Bannon wing,” which has “not abandoned Moore.”
“He doesn’t want to be on wrong side again with these voters as he was in the [runoff election],” Chalian added.
Trump signaled his support for Moore by saying he has looked at Democrat Doug Jones’ record and, “it’s terrible on crime, it’s terrible on the border, it’s terrible on the military.”
“We don’t need a liberal Democrat in that seat,” Trump said.
In the Alabama GOP Senate runoff, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his anti-Trump establishment allies somehow convinced Trump to back D.C. establishment Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL). Bannon endorsed and campaigned for Moore, who ended up thumping Strange.
Those who backed Moore in the runoff argued that a vote for Moore would be a vote for Trump’s agenda, and Moore’s campaign made the same argument during a Tuesday press conference.
Dean Young, Moore’s campaign adviser, said that Alabamiams cannot elect Doug “the liberal Democrat” Jones because he will back judges who support partial-birth abortions.
Young said Moore “is going to help Donald Trump” pass tax reform and “build the wall” while “Doug Jones is not for stopping Obamacare.”
“Judge Moore will help President Trump get done what needs to be done,” Young added.
A recent FiveThirtyEight study found that the “Bannon wing” actually represents a “major part of the modern Republican Party.”
FiveThirtyEight determined that “Bannon-ism,” which is in nearly every Republican voter, is “populist, nationalist” and non-interventionist.
The so-called “Bannon wing,” according to the study, consists of voters who are pro-police, against unfair trade deals that screw American workers, strongly against illegal immigration, against adventures abroad that are not in the national interest, and favor more infrastructure projects to rebuild America.
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