Politics

McConnell Would Have Made Life Hell For Roy Moore In The Senate

Benny Johnson Columnist, Viral Politics
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Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore lost in deep red Alabama in Tuesday night’s special election.

However, had Moore won, he would had faced a new nightmare upon arriving in D.C. at the hands of his own party.

The entire election was a power struggle for the GOP. Originally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump supported Luther Strange, who was appointed to the Senate after the Jeff Sessions vacated his seat. Strange lost to Moore with strong grassroots support and a anti-establishment message.

As allegations of inappropriate sexual misconduct mounted against Moore, leading Republicans distanced themselves from the candidate

Insiders with direct knowledge of GOP senate leadership plans for Moore tell The Daily Caller that had he entered the senate, Moore would have faced an immediate ethics investigation, expulsion from his own party’s conference and potentially getting censured.

McConnell had plans in place to immediately begin an ethics investigation into Moore’s sexual misconduct accusations, according to three senate sources. “How can we open an investigation into Al Franken and not open one into Roy Moore?” a senior GOP staffer tells The Daily Caller, on the condition of anonymity. “We all knew he would face an immediate investigation as soon as he arrived.”

“McConnell was moving on an ethics investigation and considering not seating him,” another senior GOP official told The Caller. “Moore would have been a leper in the senate. No one would have worked with him.”

A third GOP senate leadership staffer tells TheDC that McConnell had a meeting planned for Wednesday to consider banning Moore from joining theRepublican conference. “I think there would have been a big fight over whether to even include Moore in the conference,” according to the staffer. “Which is the precursor to a vote to censure Moore.”

McConnell called for Moore to drop out of the race in November after accusations of sexual misconduct mounted against Moore. When it became clear that Moore would not be dropping out, McConnell pivoted to “let the people of Alabama decide.” However, the majority leader’s mind was absolutely made up on the ethics investigation.

“McConnell started walking back his public comments against Moore over the past two weeks because he did not have the votes in conference yet to kick him out,” the senate leadership staffer tells TheDC. “But he would have had the vote and it would have been civil war.”

Benny Johnson