On a panel with Stephanie Ruhle today, Matt Welch, editor of Reason magazine, ripped into Steve Bannon's hand-picked Senate candidate, Roy Moore.
"Democrats are going to be running against everywhere, not just in Alabama, but everywhere against Roy Moore," he predicted.
"The Republican party right now is a party that doesn't have room for someone like Jeff Flake, who's a very decent guy, he's a traditional Republican, he's interested in fiscal conservatism, he's pro-immigration. No, we don't like him, but we like this culture-war lawless troll, right, even before he was heavily petting 14-year-olds in the woods."
"Explain to me why this argument works," Ruhle said. "I heard Steve Bannon go after Jeff Flake, saying, please, he's a guy who let an unlimited amount of immigrants in. There was never an unlimited amount of immigrants, A, and B, Steve Bannon made the same point we heard earlier, the same thing happened to Trump with the Access Hollywood tape as is happening to Roy Moore. What happened to President Trump was true."
"Nothing happened to President Trump other than he got elected," said Jason Johnson, editor of The Root.
"He assaulted women. His first wife accused him of assaulting her. Here's the other thing, earlier this year you have the governor of Alabama step down for having an affair," Johnson said.
"He literally stepped down for having an affair. Apparently having an affair with a 40-something-year-old woman as an adult that cost you your job, but trolling for dates at custody hearings in the '70s is something people will defend you for. It is disgusting," he said.
"I will tell you this. I was talking to one of our Root reporters based in Alabama, I said, look, what are you hearing? He said, people are still going to support the guy. The only way that Doug Jones ends up possibly making this competitive is if the large turnout you saw for Democrats in places like Birmingham or some of those other upset elections happens."
