President Trump Reacts to Roy Moore’s Defeat

President Donald Trump offered congratulations to Doug Jones, the Democrat surprisingly defeated Roy Moore in the Alabama special election for U.S. Senate. The president congratulated Jones on a “heard fought victory.”

“Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win. The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends!”

The sentence about write-in votes is a reference to over 22,000 Alabama residents voting for write-in candidates, according to preliminary results on AL.com. Jones, a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted two of the KKK members responsible for the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, won with 50 percent of the vote.

Moore received 49 percent of the vote, with 98 percent of precincts reporting. The former Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice was accused of sexually assaulting teenage girls. He refused to drop out of the race, and Trump endorsed him.

“The people of Alabama will do the right thing,” Trump wrote Tuesday morning. “Doug Jones is Pro-Abortion, weak on Crime, Military and Illegal Immigration, Bad for Gun Owners and Veterans and against the WALL. Jones is a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet. Roy Moore will always vote with us. VOTE ROY MOORE!”

Trump previously endorsed Luther Strange, the former Alabama Attorney General who served as the interim U.S. Senator when Jeff Sessions became U.S. Attorney General. Strange lost to Moore in the Republican primary.

As Trump pointed out in his congratulatory tweet, Jones will have to run again in 2020 for a full six-year term.