Donald Trump’s tears and humiliation are not in the top five reasons to be happy about Democrat Doug Jones winning Alabama’s special election for U.S. Senate. But they are on the list, as he reminded the world via Twitter early Wednesday morning:
“Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him”? Can we talk about that? It’s Alabama. The deck is never stacked against a Republican in a general election. You keep telling yourself all about how this has nothing to do with you, Donald, but in your heart you know the truth. Yes, Roy Moore was a monstrously flawed candidate and no Democrat could have won in Alabama without a horrific opponent, but this Republican loss comes on a string of other Republican losses (waves to Virginia) that have one thing in common: Donald Trump is motivating people to vote against Republicans. And we all know that Trump endorsed Roy Moore in part because he was looking to claim credit for the win he thought was coming. In reality:
Jones' win, said one senior administration official, "is a big black eye for the president."
For the president, who ignored the advice of both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his own political team at the White House to stay out of the race, it was a self-inflicted wound. Though he has at times appeared to be able to whip up the support of Republican voters around an issue on a whim, be it to inveigh against the NFL policy on standing during the national anthem or to direct their fury at the press, Tuesday's results demonstrated that he was incapable of rallying his base around the man who was perhaps his most controversial cause.
And may we see many replays of this tweet and this black-eye assessment in the year to come.