Efforts to Derail Roy Moore Are Right out of the Establishment’s Playbook; Here’s How
Whether you believe any or all of the allegations against Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, the establishment/mainstream media’s playbook to thwart the insurgent is being executed by the numbers.
I witnessed firsthand the same methods employed against GOP U.S. Senate nominee Joe Miller while serving as his press secretary in 2010 in Alaska.
The Tea Party favorite shocked the political world when he came out of nowhere to upset incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski and win the Republican primary. Between her and her father Frank, who appointed her to the position after being elected governor in 2002, the Murkowskis had held the seat since the early 1980s.
Miller headed into the general election as the hands-down favorite in red Alaska against the little-known Democrat nominee, Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams. But then, the establishment/media onslaught began.
Both Miller and Murkowski had promised days before primary election day in late August that they would honor the results, but in mid-September, just weeks after losing the race, the senator announced her write-in bid, saying that she was “taking the gloves off.”
Like Moore’s race, the media attacks against Miller followed a familiar pattern: finances; allegations of past unethical, even illegal conduct in relation to his past employment; and accusations against his wife in relation to her employment with him as a judge.
The attacks were very similar to the ones leveled at Moore and his wife Kayla by the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnnell-affiliated Senate Leadership Fund and The Washington Post in relation to the couple’s non-profit, The Foundation For Moral Law.
Having addressed and weathered all the allegations, and throwing in a bizarre incident in which a Barack Obama-supporting FBI informant took it upon himself to conduct a citizen’s arrest of a reporter at a Miller town hall, the candidates were running neck-and-neck just days before the general election.
Perhaps that’s why the local CBS affiliate KTVA, which had been very hostile toward Miller, hoped they would find a sex scandal to knock the conservative candidate out once and for all.
The weekend before the election, I received a call from Nick McDermott, a producer with the station. It went to voice mail. As Fox News reported, I soon received a text from him in which he wrote, “D— iPhone … I left you a long message. I thought I hung up. Sorry.”
What was captured in the message was part of a strategy meeting ahead of a rally former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would be headlining that night.
A female reporter or producer is heard yelling, “Child molesters!”
A male reporter responds, “Oh, yes. Can you repeat Joe Miller’s list of people, campaign workers, which one is the molester?”
A female reporter then added, “We know that out of all the people that will show up tonight, at least one of them will be a registered sex offender.”
“We have to find that one person,” a male reporter responds.
A female reporter chimed in, “And the one thing we can do is — we won’t know. We won’t know but if there is any sort of chaos whatsoever, we can put out a Twitter/Facebook alert saying what the — ‘Hey, Joe Miller punched at rally …’”
“Kind of like Rand Paul, I like that,” another replied.
KTVA admitted to the meeting and ultimately fired two of the producers who were part of it; however, one of the station’s anchors, Matt Felling, would go on to become Murkowski’s communications director shortly after she won re-election, 39 percent to Miller’s 35.
Two accusers have come forward in the case of Roy Moore alleging they were sexually assaulted by him in the 1970s.
The candidate has denied the allegations, saying he never even knew the women. The former Alabama chief justice has shown no inclination to exit the race.
McConnell has stated he is actively looking for a write-in candidate to run against Moore and the Democrat.
On his radio program on Tuesday, Rush Limbaugh said McConnell is on a “search-and-destroy mission.”
“Whether Judge Moore did the deed or deeds or not, what’s really happening here folks, if you really want to know — it’s a multi-faceted search-and-destroy mission here,” Limbaugh stated.
“But what’s really driving this — do not doubt me about this. But what’s really driving this is Mitch McConnell saying to Steve Bannon, ‘Really? You think you’re going to get your guys elected? You think you are going to get your guys elected and me kicked out of here? Really? Seriously? OK, watch this,’” he added.
In 2016, the establishment and the media employed the same strategy of trying to make Donald Trump the unacceptable choice in relation to Hillary Clinton, going after his finances in the form of demands that he release his tax returns, allegations of past unethical conduct in relation to his employment, and accusations of sexual harassment and other misconduct.
The efforts, though vigorous, ultimately failed.
Alabama voters will have to decide whether they believe Moore or his accusers, but one thing is certain — the establishment/media playbook to take out a candidate is being executed to a T. (For more from the author of “Efforts to Derail Roy Moore Are Right out of the Establishment’s Playbook; Here’s How” please click HERE)
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