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Five takeaways from the Alabama run-off | TheHill

posted onSeptember 27, 2017
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Article snippet: President Trump and the GOP establishment took a hit   Moore won a comfortable victory, despite Trump and Senate Majority Leader MORE (R-Ky.) backing Strange. What were the main takeaways? Trump backed the wrong man Trump’s support for Strange always seemed incongruous.  Strange was seen as a creature of the establishment, both because he had the support of McConnell and because he had been appointed to the seat in the first place by scandal-plagued former Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley. Trump’s decision to back Strange in advance of the first stage of the GOP primary in early August was a controversial one, even among his allies.  Stephen Bannon, who was still Trump’s chief strategist at the time, was opposed to the move. Maverick GOP strategist and longtime Trump friend Roger Stone told The Hill on Monday that he believed Trump had been “conned” by liberal-leaning members of his own administration into backing Strange. Trump himself seemed to have serious misgivings. At a rally for Strange in Huntsville last Friday, Trump even acknowledged that he may be making “a mistake.” The president also emphasized that he would campaign “like hell” for Moore if he became the nominee. In the end, Trump was not able to pull his favored candidate across the winning line, even in a deeply conservative state that he won by almost 30 points over Democrat MORE last November. The Moore win is not a lasting political wound for the president. But it is a black eye that he would much ... Link to the full article to read more

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