Remember Roy Moore? He was the Republican candidate for the open U.S. Senate seat left by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions who ultimately lost to Democrat Doug Jones after accusations of sexual misconduct with minors plagued his campaign. The last time his name was in the news cycle, he was suing Sacha Baron Cohen for duping him into an interview for Who Is America? on Showtime. Well, he’s back in the cycle again because the former state supreme court justice wants another shot at that Senate seat.
Yes, that’s right. Roy Moore is running for the Alabama seat currently occupied by Jones, the candidate who bested him, in the upcoming 2020 election. In what The Daily Beast described as a “rambling speech” delivered on Thursday, he announced, “I will run for the United States Senate in 2020.” As for his chances of winning, let alone securing the GOP nomination, Moore is confident. “Can I win? Yes, I can win.”
Among other things, The Daily Beast reported that Moore’s speech included snippets of the Pledge of Allegiance, common conservative dog whistles about George Soros spreading “false information” and claims regarding the Mueller Report’s efforts to spread lies about President Donald Trump’s administration. He also argued that, since the allegations of sexual misconduct levied against Brett Kavanaugh didn’t prevent him from becoming a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, then the allegations against him must be false, too.
Moore’s announcement and winning confidence notwithstanding, many top GOP politicians have already gone on the record to say they won’t allow it to happen. “There will be a lot of efforts made to ensure that we have a nominee other than him and one who can win in November,” Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-South Dakota) told Politico. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell added, “We’ll be opposing Roy Moore vigorously.”
Though it was Sen. Martha McSally (R-Arizona) who put it best. “Give me a break,” she said of Moore trying to get to Washington. “This place has enough creepy old men.”
And then there’s Twitter.
This is the only Roy Moore headline any outlet should be running. https://t.co/czRrghUwro
— andi zeisler (@andizeisler) June 20, 2019
https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/1141791790355419142
Not true. I was just at a meeting of the Washington Post, George Soros, the DNC, Mitch McConnell, mainstream Republicans, homosexuals, transgender people & criminals and Roy Moore’s name didn’t come up even once. https://t.co/z8mhXWzGLK
— Andy Slavitt 🇮🇱 🇺🇦 (@ASlavitt) June 20, 2019
Love that Roy Moore is forcing himself on people who don't want him there, shows a real consistency
— Megan Amram (@meganamram) June 20, 2019
old guys have unbelievable levels of self-confidence. roy moore was outed as a pedophile and condemned by everyone in america bc he ran for senate and was like “fuck yes I rule let’s do that again”. only god should feel this power
— america's lounge singer (@KrangTNelson) June 20, 2019
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1141788751829643268
https://twitter.com/HashtagGriswold/status/1141791082306555904
(Via The Daily Beast and Politico)