Trump touts Roy Moore as a job creator and himself as a better deregulator than 'Honest Abe Lincoln'
President Trump visited the Florida panhandle city of Pensacola, close to the Alabama border, Friday night to rally for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been credibly accused of sexual harassment and assault by multiple women, in a final push before Tuesday's special election. The president cast Moore as a champion of job creation who would "vote for our 'Make America Great Again' agenda." By contrast, he said, Moore's "liberal Democrat" rival, Doug Jones, is "completely controlled" by Democratic leadership and will "never, ever vote for us."
Trump also touted his own administration at length, boasting that he has cut more regulations than "Honest Abe Lincoln." He argued that his accomplishments come in spite of enormous opposition from "powerful forces in Washington," "very, very bad and evil people" who are "trying to sabotage our movement" for personal gain.
In a series of tweets Saturday morning, Trump claimed the rally was "packed to the rafters" with a "big contingent of very enthusiastic Roy Moore fans," though photos suggest the crowd had more fervor than size. Watch an excerpt of the speech in which Trump discusses Moore below, or read the full transcript here. Bonnie Kristian
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Update 5:56 p.m: The tweet linked above from The Washington Post's Dave Weigel unintentionally misrepresented the crowd size in the arena. President Trump called attention to more accurate photos, and Weigel has retracted his post and apologized for the error.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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