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US Republicans have refocused efforts on pushing through their signature tax bill as the fallout from the shock Senate victory for Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama continues.
As President Donald Trump sought to distance himself from the Republican defeat in deeply conservative Alabama, the party struck a compromise deal on the tax bill which could see the legislation approved before Christmas.
With Jones not expected to take his seat in the Senate until early January, Republicans are rushing to take a compromise bill to the floor while still holding a 52-48 majority.
Democrat Doug Jones speaks during a news conference in Birmingham, Alabama on Wednesday.
The tax bill passed by 51-49 in the Senate, and the Republican majority will be cut to the same margin when Jones takes his seat. A compromise bill agreed by both houses of Congress must now be voted on. A 50-50 tie would be decided by Vice President Mike Pence, although it’s not guaranteed that all Republicans will stay on side.
Democrats have called for a final vote on the legislation to be delayed until Jones can participate.
Trump: I was right
Trump attempted to distance himself from controversial Republican candidate Roy Moore, meanwhile, insisting in a tweet on Wednesday that he had been proven right by Moore’s defeat in Alabama – while also criticizing fellow Republicans for not supporting the 70-year-old.
The US president backed Moore’s challenger Luther Strange in the Republican primary, but after Moore was abandoned by many Republicans over claims of sexual misconduct with teenagers, Trump put his support and significant political capital behind him.
Trump, who held a rally in neighboring Florida for Moore and recorded a robocall for him, tweeted on Wednesday that he had previously “said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right!” He added that the election showed the Republicans needed “great” candidates if they were to prevail in the 2018 midterms.
Exit polls revealed that as many Alabama voters disapproved of Trump as approved, an indication of the president’s current difficulties given he beat Hillary Clinton by 28 points in the state just 13 months ago.
Jones revealed that he had received a “very gracious” call from Trump and an invitation to the White House.
The senator-elect added that Moore had yet to offer a concession despite the final vote tally giving Jones 49.9 percent to the Republican’s 48.4 percent. It remains possible that Moore will request a recount.
Midterm lessons
As Republicans sought to make progress on the tax bill, the last opportunity to pass any major legislation this year, strategists sought lessons from the Alabama election for the 2018 midterms.
Jones’ Senate victory, the first by a Democrat in Alabama for 25 years, could be a sign that the party will sweep the midterms – especially in the wake of November’s Democrat gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey – but Moore’s aptitude as a candidate has also been widely questioned.
Many Republicans refused to back Moore, who was a divisive figure even before he was accused of sexual misconduct. He has praised the period in which slavery existed in the US as a time “families were strong,” and has said homosexuality should be illegal and Muslims should be barred from serving in Congress.
Moderate Republican Senator Jeff Flake tweeted "decency wins" as Jones’ victory over Moore was announced.
The splits within the Republican Party between the establishment and a new batch of populist outriders led by former Trump strategist Steve Bannon are stark.
Trump ally Ed Rollins, a Republican campaign consultant, told the Washington Times that the feuding wings of the party must be brought together if it is to be competitive in 2018.
“You've got to have a good candidate and unified party,” Rollins said. “You can't have Steve Bannon going one way with Trump and the Republican Senate committee going another way, it's going to make everything more difficult. Everyone is going to start panicking."
Defeated Republican US Senate candidate Roy Moore pauses as he addresses supporters in Montgomery, Alabama on Tuesday.
Bannon, at the forefront of an anti-establishment movement within the Republican Party, took Moore’s defeat hard, CNN reported. He backed the 70-year-old from the start, helping him defeat Strange in the primary before campaigning alongside him even as allegations of sexual misconduct emerged. The result has stalled his “season of war” against the establishment.
The Democrats are savoring an unexpected victory that gives the party strong momentum ahead of the 2018 midterms, but the party is still to reconcile its own factional split between establishment figures and the populist wing represented by Senator Bernie Sanders.
The party faces an uphill battle to win the Senate despite recent successes, given that it has three times more seats to defend than the Republicans.
(CGTN)
