President Trump won’t personally stump for accused sexual molester Roy Moore in Alabama, but he will energize his base to help elect the Republican candidate to the Senate, according to a report on Wednesday.
Trump’s White House is weighing flooding the Cotton State with robocalls, emails and text messages in an effort to motivate Trump’s supporters to turn out for Moore in the Dec. 12 election, Politico reported.
A pro-Trump political action committee, America First Action, is surveying voters in the state as it considers a last-minute blitz, the website reported.
The election, in which Moore is being challenged by Democrat Doug Jones, was the topic of a Monday discussion between Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and White House political director Bill Stepien, Politico reported, citing two people with knowledge of the meeting.
Trump has expressed doubts about the accusations against Moore, 70, while lashing out at Jones, calling him “weak on the border” and “soft on crime.”
“I can tell you one thing for sure: We don’t need a liberal person in there, a Democrat, Jones,” Trump said last week during a news conference outside the White House.
But the Politico report said White House advisers are not sure how far Trump should go to back Moore, who has been accused by nine women of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.
Some suggested that Trump could record robocalls or send emails and text messages to his supporters in Alabama attacking Jones without explicitly endorsing Moore, Politico said.
After taking an initial hit in the polls after the sexual claims surfaced two weeks ago, Moore appears to have recovered.
A Change Research survey released Tuesday shows him with a 5-percentage point lead over his challenger, a resurgence powered by Trump’s extensive base in the state.
Trump joined with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to back Luther Strange against Moore in the primary race.
Strange lost by nine points, and Trump then threw his support to Moore, calling him a “really great guy.”
Steve Bannon, a former top strategist in the Trump White House, has been pushing Moore’s run.
The special election will fill the Senate seat left vacant by Jeff Sessions when he became the US attorney general.