Roy Moore

Is Trump's adviser going rogue, or have we seen this show before?

'Grandma Torino' Pleads Guilty. In Macon, Georgia, a grandmother pled guilty to shooting a teenager in the head. Why? Because he supposedly threw rocks at her house. My old college professor Chris Lawrence has dubbed her "Grandma Torino", after the movie she apparently didn't watch, of course.

One stalwart Trump critic dared to take the stage at this year’s CPAC. “If we want an audience with young people, we have to separate ourselves from the men on our side who’ve behaved atrociously toward women,” said conservative writer Mona Charen—a think tank fellow, and TWS contributor—during a…

Sen. Orrin Hatch announced Tuesday that he would retire at the end of his term. Hatch’s retirement is interesting from a political perspective—former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, one of President Trump’s most vocal opponents within his party—may end up in the Senate. But it’s less…

Roy Moore's "Jewish lawyer" voted for Doug Jones. You remember the trainwreck where Kayla Moore brought up their Jewish lawyer as a rebuttal to charges of anti-semitism? He voted for Doug Jones. Not only that, he raised money for him, too!

Editor's note: Kayla Moore told AL.com two days after this story published she was referring to another lawyer the family has employed, Martin Wishnatsky. This story has been corrected to note the change.

As far as elections go, 2017 wasn’t a good year for Republicans. Democrats won gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, frequently outperformed their baselines in special elections across the country and won a senate seat in Alabama—arguably the most GOP-friendly state in the country.

As we prepare for 2018—which absolutely, positively, has to be better than 2017—we’ve followed the example of the great Chris Wallace and asked TWS staff for predictions for the coming year along four vectors: politics, sports, entertainment, and foreign policy.

Shame worked in Alabama. That's what Tom Nichols argues over at the Washington Post:

How will tax reform impact you? It hasn't passed just yet, but it just might! The New York Times has a basic calculator worth checking out. And Maxim Lott has one that's a little more advanced. Neither are perfect, but worth examining to get a broad sense of how the tax reform bill might benefit or…

Chris McDaniel, a state legislator, is leaning toward challenging Sen. Roger Wicker next year in Mississippi in the Republican primary, saying the GOP’s stunning loss of a Senate seat this week in a special election in neighboring Alabama hasn’t discouraged him from running.

Editor at large Bill Kristol talks with host Eric Felten about the fallout from Tuesday's defeat of GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore in the Alabama special election.

Roy Moore’s defeat in Alabama has taught the Republican party a number of things about the current political environment: (1) That no state is impregnable, no matter how red. (2) That there is, at least for now, a limit to what Republican voters are willing to forgive in a bad candidate. (3) That…

In the wake of Democrat Doug Jones’s surprise win over Republican Roy Moore in the Alabama special election to replace Jeff Sessions in the Senate, pundits and prognosticators were scrambling to make sense of the new political landscape. The verdict was almost all bad for the Republican party.

Despite the best efforts of the president and the Republican National Committee, voters in Alabama didn’t elect a man credibly accused of sexual predation to the U.S. Senate.

Very few congressional Republicans wanted Roy Moore to win. They knew, for one thing, that Democrats were prepared to link them to him for at least the next three years. Rather than make it clear that Moore had no place in the GOP, however, many referred blithely to “the will of the people” and the…

For a Republican to lose the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions one year after Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Alabama by 28 points, everything had to break just right for the Democrat. And it did. Turnout was high in heavily African-American Democratic counties. It was low in rural and…

Very few Congressional Republicans wanted Roy Moore to win. They knew, for one thing, that Democrats were prepared to link them to him for at least the next two years. Rather than make it clear that Moore had no place in the GOP, however, many referred blithely to “the will of the people” and the…

Ranking the best national chains. Tom Sietsema, the Washington Post's food critic, spent some time at D.C.-area chain restaurants. His rankings are as critical as they are for D.C.'s finest food purveyors. Biggest loser? Buffalo Wild Wings. Biggest winner? Cracker Barrel. Sonny Bunch's favorite,…

Republican lawmakers and officials are feeling a moment of relief after the defeat of embattled GOP candidate Roy Moore in Alabama’s special election Tuesday.

Birmingham, Alabama

Last night, a Democratic candidate won a Senate seat in deep red Alabama.

Doug Jones’s victory in Tuesday’s special Senate election in Alabama is an “embarrassment,” as one Washington Republican told me. Embarrassing because it’s Alabama, one of the most GOP-friendly states in the country. Embarrassing because the party’s candidate, Roy Moore, was perhaps one of the only…

The New York Times suggested there would be two lessons from a Roy Moore victory: “It would illustrate the enduring limitations of Democrats in the South and suggest that the tug of partisanship is a forbiddingly powerful force.”

THE WEEKLY STANDARD live-blogged the Alabama Senate special election between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones on Tuesday night. Moore campaigned under the shadow of credible allegations of sexual misconduct when he was in his 30s, though by the end he had the support of both President…

How we got here with Roy Moore. On Twitter, Alex Burns has a (sad!) look back at how the GOP arrived at today's predicament with Roy Moore. It's a choose your own adventure. Remember those? Except with this one, Republicans always lose.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that no matter who wins Tuesday’s Senate election in Alabama, Republican Luther Strange will remain in the seat until the end of the session this year.

Tonight, Alabamians will cast their ballots in what’s probably the most consequential election of the year for national politics. Republican Roy Moore and Democratic candidate Doug Jones are in a tight race for the Senate seat currently held by Luther Strange (who was appointed to replace Attorney…

It’s Election Day in Alabama, and what might have been a sleepy affair—replacing long-time senator Jeff Sessions with another conservative Republican—has been anything but. The wildly divergent polls show everything from a relatively modest victory for the Republican, former state supreme court…

How does an accused sex offender go about getting elected to public office? With Alabama’s special Senate election taking place Tuesday, Republican Roy Moore has chosen to pursue a bold strategy: putting on the full armor of Trump and vanishing almost entirely from the voters’ view.

Members of the Republican National Committee are responding to the news that Joyce Simmons, committeewoman for Nebraska, resigned her post Monday in response to the RNC renewing its support for Roy Moore.

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, senior writer John McCormack talks with host Eric Felten about the closing days of Tuesday's Alabama special election for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions.

Birmingham, Alabama

A Fox News poll released on Monday shows Democratic Senate candidate Doug Jones ahead of Republican Roy Moore by 10 points. That’s different from what other polls are showing—the RealClearPolitics average has Moore up by 2.5 points, with polls ranging from Fox’s 10-point lead for Jones to a 9-point…

The Republican National Committee reversed its decision to withdraw financial support from Roy Moore’s Senate campaign last week, in the wake of President Trump’s endorsement and Moore’s gains in the polls.

Here’s the president’s message to Alabama voters ahead of Tuesday’s special election for the U.S. Senate: “Get out and vote for Roy Moore.” That’s what Donald Trump said Friday in Pensacola, just across the state line in Florida and well within the Mobile media market.

In the wake of President Trump’s official endorsement of Alabama senate candidate Roy Moore, the Republican National Committee chose to resume funding Moore’s campaign for the U.S. Senate, a move that state-level members of the RNC greeted with a range of sanguinity.

In an interview that aired Friday with ABC News, Beverly Young Nelson, the woman who alleged that Roy Moore sexually assaulted her at age 16, admitted that she added a note underneath the Roy Moore inscription in her high school yearbook. Nelson provided the yearbook in a press conference last…

On Friday, Fox News claimed that one of Roy Moore’s accusers forged some of a yearbook inscription which had previously been used to substantiate Moore’s connection with the alleged victim.

Athens, Alabama

On December 5, the Republican National Committee formalized its support for Roy Moore by sending $170,000 to aid his campaign in the race’s final week. The decision came days after President Donald Trump announced his endorsement of Moore. The money is a pittance in the world of modern campaign…

The chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee said Thursday that the committee will never support Roy Moore, the Alabama Senate candidate who has been accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls.

After a week spent limping along under the weight of accusations of sexual misconduct, Sen. Al Franken announced his resignation from the Senate Thursday morning.

Sir, we have to land over there so I can use the bathroom. A non-stop flight from New York to Seattle had to divert to Billings, Montana because its toilets were full, the Billings Gazette reports:

I’m not sure who coined the term “pervnado” to describe the torrential whirlwind of sexual harassment allegations roiling the already morally unhinged mirror worlds of show business, media, and politics. (Although, from the looks of it, we can thank headline writers at the New York Post for the…

Former Trump administration adviser Steve Bannon opined that Mitt Romney “hid behind” his religion instead of serving in the Vietnam War during a rally Tuesday night for Senate candidate Roy Moore.

Next Tuesday, we’ll finally know whether Republican Roy Moore or Democrat Doug Jones will become the next Senator from Alabama.

One day after President Trump formally endorsed Roy Moore, the Alabama Senate candidate and accused sexual predator, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered this explanation for the move: the allegations against Moore are troubling, but the prospect of electing a Democrat is more…

Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore's account of when he began dating his wife Kayla would place the start of their courtship before her divorce from her first husband, according to court documents.

Birmingham, Ala.

The Lake Erie salt mine 1,700 feet beneath the lake is a modern marvel. Growing up in Cleveland, I had heard about this mine, but this was pre-YouTube and the modern internet that can showcase it in all its glory. Check out the video and the interview, it's pretty neat.

A foolish consistency may be the hobgoblin of little minds, as the poet had it, but a flailing inconsistency isn’t a particularly good look either.

On the Monday following Thanksgiving, the principals of President Trump’s National Security Council met to discuss what the administration would do about recognizing the capital of the state of Israel. A federal law requires the U.S. embassy to be moved to Jerusalem unless waived by the president…

Donald Trump endorsed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore on Monday morning with a pair of messages on the president’s Twitter account about political prudence.

Henagar, Alabama

Despite everything we know, or think we know, about the private life and opinions of Judge Roy Moore, I have no doubt that he will win the Alabama special election on December 12, and succeed to Attorney General Jefferson Sessions's old Senate seat.

The other day my pals at the Federalist ran a piece by Tully Borland, an associate professor of philosophy at Ouachita Baptist University, titled “Why Alabamans Should Vote for Roy Moore.” Mind you, that’s not “Why an Alabaman Might Vote for Moore”—this was not an explainer, or a reported piece.…

Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., would be more likable were it not for the fact they’re craven opportunists.

Because it looks increasingly and unfortunately likely that we’re going to have to hear the phrase “Senator Roy Moore” before too long, journalists have moved on to the next question: Will the U.S. Senate make good on its threats, and perhaps refuse to seat the twice-booted judge, who has been…

Discussions to remove Rex Tillerson from the State Department and replace him with CIA director Mike Pompeo have been going on for months, even if State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert says White House chief of staff John Kelly is telling State the “rumors are not true.”

Alas, if recent polls are right, Roy Moore is likely to win his Senate race in Alabama. That means we’ll have to spend at least the next two years doing something that fills me with abject dread: hearing the name "Roy Moore."

Have a question for Matt Labash? Ask him at askmattlabash@gmail.com or click here.

As if there was a need to remind everyone that American politics has lost its marbles and then pulverized them with a steamroller, here are five observations from recent domestic events and the president’s Twitter feed.

The Alabama special Senate Election is a bit of a rollercoaster. Republican Roy Moore held a real lead over Democrat Doug Jones for most of the race—until the Washington Post and other outlets published credible allegations that Moore had inappropriate sexual contact with teenagers while he was in…

Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore made his first public appearance in nearly two weeks Monday night, dodging press and refusing to take questions at a rally in Henagar, Alabama, as he railed against “malicious and false attacks which reflect the immorality of our time.”

In a 1971 story (“Nora”), Washington novelist Ward Just wrote about a senator in trouble. “If you’re an architect or a lawyer and you get into trouble, you can resign and go practice somewhere else,” Just wrote. “If you’re a politician and get into trouble, that’s the end of it.”

It’s been more than five days since President Trump figuratively stood by Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. As he was leaving the White House last Tuesday to spend Thanksgiving with his family at Mar-a-Lago, Trump stopped to talk with the press and told them Alabama does not need to send a…

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi didn’t say Sunday if she believed the multiple women who have accused Democratic Rep. John Conyers of sexual misconduct, and instead encouraged “due process” as a congressional ethics committee probes allegations made against the 88-year-old lawmaker in multiple…

Doug Jones’s Senate campaign called Roy Moore a sexual “abuser” in an advertisement released Wednesday, its bluntest attack yet against the Republican candidate’s alleged history of pursuing teenage girls sexually, some of them underage.

J is for Jihad, and S is for Stupid Children's Books. As a new father, I have already seen the crazy amount of stupid products made for children. The biggest offending category is actually children's books, many of which are terrible. Some are just poorly written, but others are worse: They are…

For nearly two weeks, the White House has been tiptoeing around the sexual assault allegations against Roy Moore, neither condemning nor defending the embattled Senate candidate, who has been accused of pursuing teenage girls for dates as a grown man and even touching a 14-year-old girl sexually…

A stark divide has emerged between the White House and Senate Republicans on Roy Moore’s ongoing candidacy for the Alabama Senate. President Donald Trump has not formally endorsed Moore, who’s been accused of sexual assault and pursuing inappropriate relationships with teenage girls while in his…

If you had told me last year that there was going to be a competitive Senate election in Alabama before 2017 was over, I would have probably smiled politely and slowly backed away. The idea of a close Senate race in the Yellowhammer state should be absurd. Trump won the state by 28 points,…

President Trump was understandably thrilled by the House’s passage of its tax-cut bill Thursday. On Twitter he called the vote a “a big step toward fulfilling our promise to deliver historic TAX CUTS for the American people by the end of the year.” Trump did not celebrate in the Rose Garden with…

Asked about allegations Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore dated and engaged in appropriate conduct with teenage girls several decades ago, Alabama state senator Dick Brewbaker commented, “I do not buy the idea that suddenly because it’s now the U.S. Senate, she felt like she had to come…

Republicans in Alabama are facing a nightmare scenario in their upcoming special election—either they elect to the Senate Doug Jones, a Democrat who does not share their values on important issues like abortion, or Roy Moore, a Republican who has been credibly accused of sexual improprieties with…

The urge to vote for the outsider—the dissenter, the maverick, the troublemaker hated by those elites—is a reasonable one. Political parties become stale and predictable, their officeholders self-seeking and cowardly. The ordinary voter, exasperated by his elected leaders’ inability or refusal to…

If cleverness has often been a sign of decadence throughout history, the attempt to be too clever by half is an even more reliable marker of cultural decline. And a fondness for complicated rationalization, a proclivity for sophisticated excuse-making, and a tendency toward rushed and forced…

It's becoming increasingly unlikely that Roy Moore will be elected to the Senate—or, perhaps, endure as the Republican nominee for the seat once held by Attorney General Jefferson Sessions. But in the event that Judge Moore wins his election, it is interesting to note that more than a few…

As Jonathan Adler writes here at THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Judge Roy Moore is “constitutionally illiterate” on some basic issues. He also happens to be biblically illiterate in a crucial particular.

An attorney for Roy Moore failed to defend his client Wednesday from multiple allegations of past sexual misconduct printed in theWashington Post, and instead questioned the credibility of a separate accuser’s account and attacked her celebrity representation, Gloria Allred.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday gave a speech that was long on self-congratulation, but thin on concrete diplomatic victories from his 12-day Asia trip—and silent on everyone’s most pressing question, whether Trump still supports Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.

Creepy Christianity and Roy Moore. Yesterday, we looked at some of the concerning behavior and statements of religious figures in Alabama concerning Roy Moore. There are, if you'll forgive, moore things to report. And they're not good.

President Trump came home from his Asia trip with a significant political conundrum on his hands: What to do about Roy Moore. For days, the White House has been publicly cautious in rendering any judgment on the credible sexual misconduct allegations against Moore, even as Republican senators and…

Asked about allegations Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore dated and engaged in inappropriate conduct with teenage girls several decades ago, Alabama state senator Dick Brewbaker commented “I do not buy the idea that suddenly because it’s now the U.S. Senate, she felt like she had to come…

Let's talk about bad preachers. Because some are sticking by Roy Moore, and hoo boy, does one in particular have some very unpreacherlike things to say.

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, senior writer John McCormack joins host Eric Felten to talk about the GOP's Roy Moore mess.

Nearly a month ago, I wrote “There's an Awakening Against Sexual Assault, So Why Is No One Talking About Bill Clinton?” It took long enough, but there is a growing chorus of voices on the left demanding that Clinton’s crimes not be ignored. The disturbing allegations against Roy Moore appear to…

News about the Alabama Senate race is moving fast. Less than a week ago, most election watchers were still focused on off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Maine and other states. But on Thursday, the Washington Post published accounts of four different women who, as teenagers, were…

Attorney general Jeff Sessions has told political allies in Alabama that he is not considering running for his old Senate seat as a write-in candidate in next month’s special election. That’s according to a spokeswoman for Sessions at the Department of Justice, Sarah Isgur Flores, who also tells me…

Most Republican senators have been quick to distance themselves from Roy Moore since allegations emerged in the Washington Post late last week that he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl when he was 32 and pursued relationships with three other teenagers. With legislators having time to review…

While the allegations of sexual misconduct and assault against Roy Moore have seriously cast the viability of his Senate candidacy in doubt, some Republicans are now calling for his expulsion if he still wins the Senate race in deep-red Alabama.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said Monday that he would vote for Democrat Doug Jones over Judge Roy Moore in the Alabama special election for Senate and would support expelling Moore if he wins.

Breitbart News sought this weekend to discredit the Washington Post and a woman who accused Roy Moore of trying to initiate sexual encounters with her when she was a minor, but the right-wing tabloid ended up doing the exact opposite.

A new accuser has come forward with an accusation of sexual assault against Senate candidate Roy Moore.

Attorney general Jeff Sessions has told political allies in Alabama he is not considering running for his old Senate seat as a write-in candidate in next month’s special election. That’s according to a spokeswoman for Sessions at the Department of Justice, Sarah Isgur Flores, who also tells me…

The allegations made against U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama, published in the Washington Post last week, would seem to be indisputable. In his 30s, according to the Post’s story, Moore cultivated romantic relationships with teenaged girls and in one case initiated sexual contact with a…

Roy Moore and his defenders have questioned the timing of a Washington Post story that includes the first-hand account of a woman who said that Moore, now 70, initiated an intimate sexual encounter with her when he was 32 years old and she was 14. “To think grown women would wait 40 years before a…

President Donald Trump, said White House aide Kellyanne Conway on Sunday, “is not as focused on this as he is his major 13-day trip abroad.” The “this” is the question of Roy Moore and his political future after the Washington Post’s bombshell report last week that included, among other…

Roy Moore has a story, and he is sticking to it. One day after a damning Washington Post story alleging that Moore, the GOP candidate in the upcoming Alabama Senate election, sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and sought out relationships with three other teenagers between the ages of 16 and 18,…

Since the Washington Post published its bombshell report Thursday—in which a woman alleges that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore molested her when she was a 14-year-old and Moore was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney—almost all Republican senators and President Trump have said that Moore…

Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., said Friday she believes allegations about Roy Moore and demanded this type of misconduct end.

The Senate campaign arm of the Republican Party on Friday severed ties with Roy Moore, one day after the Washington Post reported that Moore had sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and pursued inappropriate relationships with several other teenagers while he was a district attorney in his 30s.

So far, the White House is urging people to be “cautious” about the allegations against Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore of Alabama documented in a Thursday article in the Washington Post. Citing 30 sources, the Post reports four teenage girls who now say the thirtysomething Moore asked them on…

Since there's a lot to cover today, like why Roy Moore shouldn't ever be a member of the U.S. Senate, please accept my condensed afternoon links.

Judge Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for Alabama's upcoming special Senate election, denies allegations that he romantically pursued teenagers as young as 14 when he was in his 30s. Even if the allegations are true, one statewide elected official in Alabama said it's "much ado about nothing."…

Senate candidate Roy Moore allegedly sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl when he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney in Alabama, according to an explosive new report by the Washington Post.

Arizona senator Jeff Flake issued a sharp rebuke of a Republican Senate candidate’s controversial past remarks and warned about his nomination Tuesday, while many of his GOP colleagues skirted the subject.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, Congress’s longest-serving member, is privately planning to retire at the end of his term, according to a report from the Atlantic on Friday.

If there’s a legislative fix on the way for the scrapped cost-sharing payments to insurance companies under Obamacare, President Trump seems to be behind it. Trump last week announced he would end reimbursements to insurers selling discounted policies to low-income customers, which the…

Controversial firebrand Roy Moore’s primary victory Tuesday over appointed Alabama senator Luther Strange to run for the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions wasn't even close. Moore won the race by nearly 10 points.

With all precincts reporting, former Alabama supreme court justice justice Roy Moore defeated former state attorney general Luther Strange 54.6 percent to 45.4 percent in the Republican Senate primary to finish out Jeff Sessions' term.

Washington stands by to see which brand of Trumpism will carry the day in a Alabama's special election primary between Luther Strange and Roy Moore, a race that has become something of a proxy war for the Republican Party. Polls close at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday and THE WEEKLY STANDARD will be tracking…

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Monday night, saying he wears the top GOP lawmaker's contempt as "a badge of honor."

Out of 100 members of the United States Senate, precisely one man—Alabama's Jeff Sessions—endorsed candidate Donald Trump while the Republican presidential nomination was hotly contested. So it's not terribly surprising that the Senate GOP primary to replace President Trump's attorney general is…

The squeeze is on Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump’s campaign who has become a major target of special counsel Robert Mueller’s aggressive investigation. The latest details from the Washington Post describe email evidence that Manafort offered “private briefings” about the Trump…

Fiery social conservative Roy Moore is on the verge of upsetting Sen. Luther Strange, President Trump's preferred candidate, in a closely watched special election in Alabama.

The best day of Sen. Luther Strange’s election campaign was Aug. 8, the day President Donald Trump tweeted that he had “done a great job representing the people of the Great State of Alabama” since being appointed to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions and giving his “complete and total…

A new poll in the Alabama Senate GOP primary runoff shows a dead heat between Republicans Roy Moore and Luther Strange. Harper Polling reports:

President Trump played a surprisingly small role in the Republican primary for the Alabama Senate seat held by Jeff Sessions before he became attorney general.

We’ll soon learn the value of President Trump’s endorsement. In a bit of a surprise, he jumped into the unpleasant Alabama Senate race and put his stamp of approval on Republican Senator Luther Strange.