From the midweek edition of the Morning Jolt:
An Unlikely Figure to Represent Resistance to DACA
Former judge Roy Moore is the man most likely to represent Alabama in the Senate, barring an enormous upset in the general election against Democrat Doug Jones, which will be held December 12.
Breitbart.com this morning, characterizing Moore’s win in the Alabama Senate Republican primary:
Roy Moore’s insurgent victory in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate Republican primary runoff in Alabama marks a definitive rejection by Donald Trump’s base of his shift toward working with Democrats on issues like the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
This is a little ironic, because until mid-summer, Moore apparently had no idea what the DACA program was, judging from this interview with radio host Dale Jackson, July 11:
JACKSON: “Would you support an end to the Dreamer program that President Trump has still continued to push?
MOORE: “Pardon? The Dreamer program?”
JACKSON: “Yes Sir. The DACA/DAPA. You’re not aware of what dreamers are?”
MOORE: “No.”
JACKSON: “Dreamers are — this is a big issue in the immigration debate. Dreamers are . . .”
MOORE: “Why don’t you tell me what it is Dale, and quit beating around, and tell me what it is?”
JACKSON: “I’m in the process of doing that, Judge Moore.”
The controversial DACA program established in 2012 had somehow escaped his attention, but once he was up to speed, Moore concluded he opposed it. The man he defeated, Senator Luther Strange, did a good job of sounding like he opposed DACA for what it does (allowing those who entered the country illegally while children to stay) but if you look closely at his words, his primary objection to the program was President Obama implementing it through an executive order:
“Since my tenure as Attorney General, I have been fighting, and winning, against Obama-era experiments with illegal amnesty. Today, the Trump administration rightly affirmed that Congress must lead the way in securing our borders and ending the crisis of illegal immigration.”
“We actually sued successfully to stop the Obama administration program to allow adults to stay here illegally (DAPA). I think this program is the same category – I think it’s unconstitutional.”
“The President makes the best point – Congress should address this issue. I’m in the camp, and maybe it’s a small camp, that [believes] we can do more than one thing at a time.”
“Extraordinary measures [were already taken] in the past administration to benefit noncitizens over citizens of our count country. The last thing we need is the help of foreign nations trying to tell us how to straighten our own immigration system.”
Of course, nowhere in his statement does Strange say, “I believe those who entered the country illegally as children must not be allowed to stay.”
As the man most likely to be the next senator from Alabama, hopefully Moore will continue to study his briefing books and not just wing it when discussing topics he sort-of, kind-of remembers reading about once:
Jeff Stein: Some right-wing conservatives think Sharia law is a danger to America — do you?
Roy Moore: There are communities under Sharia law right now in our country. Up in Illinois. Christian communities; I don’t know if they may be Muslim communities. But Sharia law is a little different from American law. It is founded on religious concepts.
Stein: Which American communities are under Sharia law? When did they fall under Sharia law?
Moore: Well, there’s Sharia law, as I understand it, in Illinois, Indiana — up there. I don’t know.
Stein: That seems like an amazing claim for a Senate candidate to make.
Moore: Well, let me just put it this way — if they are, they are; if they’re not, they’re not.