Breitbart chief Steve Bannon’s fervent support of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore has no influence on President Trump, according to the White House.
Several key Republicans, such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have called on Moore, the GOP nominee, to drop out of the Alabama Senate race due to several sexual misconduct allegations.
But Moore is staying put, and White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Friday that Trump thinks Alabama voters should decide Moore’s fate.
Bannon, Trump’s former top strategist, has backed Moore through his news site Breitbart and reportedly told Fox News host Sean Hannity to lay off Moore.
“Steven Bannon is sending a strong message to the establishment to back off of Roy Moore,” NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker said during Friday’s press briefing. “Does the president’s allegiance to Steve Bannon in any way implicate his response?”
“The president doesn’t have an allegiance to Steve Bannon. The president has an allegiance to the people of this country and nothing else,” Sanders replied, continuing on to say that Trump has not recently spoken with Bannon.
The Breitbart executive has been seeking to challenge Republicans favorable to McConnell in the 2018 midterms. “Winners make policy and losers go home,” the Kentucky senator said at an October press conference when asked about Bannon’s goals.
Polling in the wake of sexual assault allegations against Moore has shown the Republican behind Democrat Doug Jones in the deeply red state of Alabama.
Sanders brushed aside Friday the idea Trump is concerned about losing a Senate seat.
“Look, I think that the president is less concerned about the seat and more focused on the policy and the legislation that we’re pushing through right now, like tax reform,” the White House spokeswoman said.