All The Republicans At Roy Moore’s Party Had The Same Reaction

Blame everyone. Except the candidate accused of sexual assault.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. ? “God is always in control.”

A visibly shaken, rambling Roy Moore told a venue full of his supporters that he’d “wait on God” for direction, minutes after he and his holier-than-thou Senate campaign collapsed in a devastating loss to a Democrat in Alabama.

But if God did take the wheel Tuesday night, she was already on Interstate 65, hightailing it to Birmingham to kick it with election winner Doug Jones.

Jones’ victory party would undoubtedly be more gracious than Moore’s sullen affair, with its tiny white-bread sandwich slivers and where a saxophone cover of Carlos Santana’s “Smooth” served as the night’s only respite.

No sooner had the election map turned blue than the Republicans at this party began to point fingers.

“There’s blood in the water for Mitch McConnell, it leads back to him. This room is gonna be walking out with a vengeance. We know who’s responsible,” said Chanel Rion, the 27-year-old fiancee of Missouri Senate candidate Courtland Sykes.

Sykes himself was even more fire-and-brimstone, worried that establishment Republicans ? not Democrats ? were winning the war against “MAGA candidates,” a shorthand for President Donald Trump’s “make America great again” campaign slogan.

“This is impossible. This is 100-percent an effort by the Washington establishment to keep Roy Moore out of it,” Sykes told HuffPost. “If they can put a Democrat in office in Alabama, in 2017, to replace Jeff Sessions, even after Donald Trump won by a landslide in 2016, that means they can replace anyone they want. We don’t have an honest republic if this can happen. Does that make sense?”

Others pointed to Alabama’s senior senator, Republican Richard Shelby, who on Sunday admitted he didn’t vote for Moore and said the “Republican Party can do better.” One Moore supporter was overheard saying he’d like to find an establishment Republican like Shelby to “punch in the face” for involvement in Moore’s downfall.

Then there was Trump, who leaned on Moore after backing his GOP opponent during the primary. Trump is now 0-for-2 in his Alabama endorsements.

“What didn’t help is Republicans jumping ship during Roy Moore’s greatest time of need,” said Ben Smith, 25, a conservative University of Alabama student. “That destroyed any party unity we had left ... I’m kind of just numb right now.”

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https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/roy-moore-election-night-party_us_5a30c4a2e4b091ca2683d313?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009