When President Trump picked Jeff Sessions to be the attorney general earlier this year, no one could have predicted the results of Tuesday night’s election. For the first time in over two decades, a Democrat has won an Alabama Senate seat. It took a perfect storm of events for Doug Jones to upset Roy Moore and that is just what happened. Moore, a controversial candidate, crushed the establishment choice of Luther Strange, putting a man on the ballot who was at best considered a loose cannon by two congressional Republicans. Then, the allegations of sexual misconduct came from several women. In addition to that, Moore was running at a time while the president’s approval ratings were and are at record lows.

Many top Republicans abandoned Moore, leaving him basically on his own. Then, President Trump tried to come to his rescue. He warned against a rush to judgement over the allegations about Moore. Trump called on Republican voters to support Moore because they needed him in the Senate. He held a rally in Pensacola, Florida, and campaigned for Moore at it. He even went so far as to record robocalls in support of Moore. In the end, it was not enough. Jones pulled the surprise win and is going to Washington. The question is, though, while his name was not the one on the ballot, is it President Trump’s fault the Republicans lost the Alabama Senate seat?

CNN’s Jake Tapper talking about this loss being a defeat for President Trump:

The Issue

Is the loss of the Senate seat in Alabama President Trump’s fault? Were his words and actions the cause of the Republicans losing a critical Senate seat? Or, was it the people of Alabama that caused the loss?

Page 2: Arguments that this was President Trump’s fault

