Trump Says The People Of Alabama Should Decide On Moore, Refuses To Call For Him To Drop Out | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This informational nugget was sent to me by Ben Shapiro, who represents the Daily Wire, and since this is one of the most topical news events, it should be published on BCN.

    On Thursday, President Trump - after more than a week of absolute silence on sexual molestation allegations against Alabama Senate Republican candidate Roy Moore, whom he has endorsed - finally allowed his press secretary to make his position on Moore clear: he doesn't have one. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump would leave it up to the people of Alabama to decide - a serious cop-out from a man who has commented on everything from NFL players kneeling for the national anthem to ESPN commentators criticizing him. There is a stark contrast between Trump calling former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick a "son of a bitch," his press secretary saying that Jemele Hill should lose her job, and his utter quietude on a candidate he purportedly supports, and who has now been credibly accused of molestation by women who were 14 and 16 at the time of the alleged activity.

    While Huckabee Sanders stated that if the allegations were true, Moore should step down, Trump refuses to do more than that. Trump's unwillingness to intervene means that Moore will undoubtedly stay in the race. There was the slim possibility that if Trump had jumped in with both feet and demanded that Moore drop out, he would have - or that at least a write-in campaign could have gained serious ground. Without Trump's support, Moore will be the man on the ticket, and he'll either win or lose.

    Presumably, this also means that Trump won't support any effort to expel Moore from the Senate if he does win - that would be "overruling" the people.

    Trump recusing himself is a big win for Steve Bannon, who wishes to avoid questions as to Moore's actual moral culpability, and instead cast the issue as a battle between "establishment Republicans" who want Moore gone, and brass-balled knuckle-fighters who want him to stay. That's not actually the battle, of course - most of those who want Moore gone don't want him gone because they like Luther Strange or Doug Jones (I'd prefer Jeff Sessions) - but turning a basic question of child molestation into a question of "gutsiness" is convenient. And gross. And it also means that Republicans will be fighting charges that they went along with a suspected child molester for years - even if many Republicans vote for Moore to stop Doug Jones from taking the seat.

    There are a couple of other reasons why Trump isn't going to say anything. First, Trump doesn't want to be hit with the charge that he should step down, too, based on old allegations of sexual harassment and assault. In fact, Huckabee Sanders was asked that specific question by a Fox News reporter:

    Trump also doesn't want to be seen as siding with the establishment against Moore again. Rumors flew that Trump was fighting mad that he had backed Strange over Moore in the primaries, and he doesn't want to be seen crossing his base.

    Whatever the rationales, Trump has abdicated any moral duty in this fight. Republicans will either win or lose with Moore - which means they lose no matter how this goes.