Steve Bannon Needles Trump by Agreeing to Headline Rally for Roy Moore

Axios reports that Steve Bannon will be headlining a rally for Roy Moore, who is opposing Trump’s pick Luther Strange in a runoff election to be held on Tuesday:

Steve Bannon is heading to Alabama Sunday night to rally for Judge Roy Moore on Monday night with Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty.

Why it matters: This rally is three days after President Trump, Bannon’s former boss, was in Alabama rallying for Moore’s opponent — Mitch McConnell’s favored candidate Luther Strange. For Bannon to make a rare public appearance in such close proximity to Trump shows how invested he is in this race specifically, and attacking McConnell more generally. Another former White House adviser, Sebastian Gorka, rallied with Sarah Palin for Moore on Thursday.

From a source close to Bannon: “Steve is coming to Alabama to support President Trump against the Washington establishment and Mitch McConnell. Steve views Judge Moore as a fierce advocate of Trump and the values he campaigned on.”

Bannon’s Breitbart has been slamming Trump for endorsing Strange. There’s a little jostling for Supreme Alpha Male Status going on here. As Susan Wright noted earlier, the Trump folks did not give Breitbart media credentials to Trump’s pro-Strange rally. Now Bannon is needling Trump by showily supporting Moore, who is likely to win.

By the way, Moore does not deserve to win. My negative view of Roy Moore was cemented a long time ago, when he defied a court order to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from the Alabama state Supreme Court building. Regardless of what I think of the ruling, the Rule of Law requires that court orders be challenged in court — or, failing that, by amending the fundamental documents that govern courts’ interpretation. You can’t just defy the court, unless the court order is so breathtakingly at odds with morality that to follow it would be monstrous to follow it (such as a court order to enslave someone).

I’d like you to read a quote from Judge Bill Pryor, who in 2003 argued for the removal of Moore from the Supreme Court of Alabama. The link to the official transcript is lost to history, so I take this quote from a 2004 post from BeldarBlog:

The stakes here are high, because this case raises a fundamental question. What does it mean to have a government of laws and not of men? ….

….

Every one of these citizens, and thousands more who come before the courts, must know that the final orders of the courts will decide their disputes, even if that citizen disagrees with that order. Someone has to lose, and virtually always, the losing litigant thinks he was right and the court was wrong. This court must provide the answer that no citizen, whether rich or poor, powerful or weak, is above the law.

As I mentioned a moment ago, the judicial branch of our government, both our federal government and our state government, as human institutions, are imperfect. They sometimes make mistakes. Even terrible ones. We correct some of those mistakes on appeal. Sometimes the appeals court, even the Supreme Court gets it wrong, too. Fortunately, our Constitution gives us remedies.

I stand by my remarks from 1997 that we’re called by God to do what is right. But we’re called to exercise our constitutional rights in fulfilling his will.

We can elect lawmakers, legislatures, to change the law. We can elect presidents to appoint judges faithful to the law. We, the people, can even amend the Constitution itself. That is what our nation did when it abolished slavery with the 13th Amendment, which overruled the abominable decision of the Supreme Court in Dred Scott versus Sanford. But the refusal of a party to comply with a court order, whether the court order is right or wrong, is not a remedy provided by the Constitution.

Because Chief Justice Roy Moore, despite his special responsibility as the highest judicial officer of our state, placed himself above the law, by refusing to abide by a final injunction entered against him, and by urging the public through the news media to support him, and because he is totally unrepentant, this court regrettably must remove Roy Moore from the office of Chief Justice of Alabama. The rule of law upon which our freedom depends, whether a judge, a police officer, or a citizen, demands no less.

Most recently, Moore suggested that 9/11 might have been a punishment for the United States rejecting God. He has also said “maybe Putin is right” given Putin’s rejection of gay marriage —
adding this about Putin: “Maybe he’s more akin to me than I know.”

He’s actually a perfect Trumper. I’m surprised Trump supported Strange at all.

Actually, it looks like Trump is starting to regret that decision. The polls show Moore winning decisively — and even Trump is starting to recognize that, saying that his support of Moore’s opponent Luther Strange might have been a “mistake” and that he will fully support Moore if he wins the runoff on Tuesday.

Roy Moore does not deserve to be in the U.S. Senate. But he is almost certainly going to be. Hey, if Donald Trump is going to be in the White House, what the hell, right? Just let anybody in anywhere. Something something tear it all down something something.

And when it happens, Alpha Male Steve Bannon will be there grinning. Your move, Trump.

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