{"id":39692,"date":"2017-08-09T06:32:12","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T06:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=39692"},"modified":"2017-08-09T06:32:12","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T06:32:12","slug":"trump-rewards-loyalty-alabama-senate-race-tweeting-endorsement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/trump-rewards-loyalty-alabama-senate-race-tweeting-endorsement.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump Rewards Loyalty in Alabama Senate Race by Tweeting Endorsement"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Trump Rewards Loyalty in Alabama Senate Race by Tweeting Endorsement<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">President Trump intervened Tuesday in the special Senate election in Alabama, bestowing a coveted endorsement on Senator Luther Strange a week before a Republican primary that has been fought, in part, over who has been most loyal to the president.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">In a surprise move that caught many in the Republican Party off guard, Mr. Trump tweeted that Mr. Strange \u201chas done a great job representing the people of the Great State of Alabama.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">Mr. Trump\u2019s decision to wade into the race to fill the seat left vacant by Attorney General Jeff Sessions will test just how much clout the president enjoys among Republicans in a state where he remains highly popular.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">Mr. Strange has been locked in a close race with Representative Mo Brooks and Roy Moore, the controversial former state Supreme Court justice. There are also a number of other, lesser-known Republicans vying for the nomination. If nobody gets over 50 percent in the Aug. 15 vote, the party\u2019s nominee will be decided in a September runoff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">Mr. Strange, who heard from the president about his plans earlier Tuesday, had been lobbying for weeks to win Mr. Trump\u2019s support, singing the president\u2019s praises in TV ads, online and through as many Fox News appearances he could schedule. Mr. Strange and his allies also have made Mr. Brooks\u2019s attacks last year on Mr. Trump\u2019s presidential campaign a centerpiece of the primary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">Reince Priebus, the former White House chief of staff, had been uneasy about Mr. Trump spending political capital in such a fluid campaign \u2014 especially with Mr. Brooks, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, also in the field.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">But Mr. Trump threw caution to the wind with his Tuesday night tweet, dealing Mr. Brooks a devastating blow. The endorsement was also sure to delight Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, for backing the 6-foot-9 lawmaker known to many as Big Luther.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">The president may have been fully persuaded late last month, when Mr. Brooks criticized Mr. Trump for what the congressman described as the tweeter-in-chief\u2019s \u201cwaterboarding\u201d of Mr. Sessions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">Tuesday\u2019s prime-time presidential tweet was the best news Mr. Strange had gotten since he was appointed to the Senate seat under a cloud this year by Robert Bentley, then the governor. Mr. Bentley, dogged by questions related to an extramarital affair, resigned not long after tapping Mr. Strange, who at the time was the attorney general.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">Questions about the appointment and his cozy connection to the Republican establishment, reinforced by a group allied with Mr. McConnell that is spending millions of dollars on his campaign\u2019s behalf, have made it difficult for Mr. Strange to poll anywhere near the majority he needs to avert a runoff. Mr. Moore has appeared to benefit from the sniping between Mr. Strange and Mr. Brooks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">Even with Mr. Trump\u2019s backing, Mr. Strange will find it difficult to win the nomination outright on Tuesday. But having the president in his corner would hand him a sizable advantage next month: Mr. Strange\u2019s aides said Tuesday that they were eager to find a date to bring Mr. Trump to Alabama before a runoff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\">Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/08\/08\/us\/politics\/alabama-senate-luther-strange-trump.html<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/trump-rewards-loyalty-alabama-senate-race-tweeting-endorsement.html\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"social\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #ffffff !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 630px !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump Rewards Loyalty in Alabama Senate Race by Tweeting Endorsement President Trump intervened Tuesday in the special Senate election in Alabama, bestowing a coveted endorsement on Senator Luther Strange a week before a Republican primary that has been fought, in part, over who has been most loyal to the president. 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