Doug Jones delivered a strong attack on Roy Moore in Huntsville Sunday and said that, two days from the vote on Tuesday, he can feel his Senate campaign is on the move and on the right side of history.

Appearing as surprise speaker at a get-out-the-vote rally in a large African-American church, Jones accused Moore of hiding from voters and the press, taking money from his charity instead of earning a living, and being ignorant of the issues facing Alabama.

He also spoke about the allegations women have made against Moore during the race. "I'll tell you this. I'm only going to do it one time," Jones said. "Just like Sen. (Richard) Shelby today, I believe those women in Etowah County. Just like Sen. Shelby said today, where there's smoke there's fire, and there's fire there. And I am so proud of those women and so many others, because from the very beginning we have talked about women's issues that are important to the women of this state.

"I've got a mother that's 86 years old, I've got a wife, I've got a daughter, I've got two granddaughters and those issues are important to me, because they hit home to me," Jones said. "I want to make sure that when my granddaughters grow up, they don't have to endure the kinds of things that those girls in Etowah County did and sit silent for 30 or 40 years. I want to make sure that we send a message of who we are and what we are, because we're much better than that."

The crowd had come to the Progressive Union Missionary Baptist Church to hear U.S Rep. Cedrick Richardson (D-Louisiana), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, rally them to get out the vote on Tuesday. Richardson couldn't make it, moderator David Person said, "but we do have Doug Jones."

Jones then gave the crowd what amounted to a closing argument for his candidacy and said he feels momentum. He talked about "kitchen table issues," including jobs and healthcare, and he asked the crowd to imagine Roy Moore sitting across the table from an automobile company CEO thinking about coming to Alabama 20 years ago.

"It would have been a disaster," Jones said, "and you see business leader after business leader (today) expressing their concern about where the state is going to go. And if business goes south, folks, it goes south with your jobs."

Doug Jones speaking in the sanctuary of the Progressive Union Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala., on Dec. 10, 2017. (Lee Roop/lroop@al.com)

Jones said he supports Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Care Insurance Program (CHIPS). "He refuses to say whether he would even vote to fund it," Jones said of Moore and CHIPS, "and the reason is Roy Moore has consistently said he wants the government out of healthcare. Well, let me tell you, that means no Medicare. That means no Medicaid."

Alabama should have expanded Medicaid when then-Gov. Robert Bentley rejected Washington's offer, Jones said. "We've lost billions of dollars," he said. "Our rural hospitals are closing because there's not enough Medicaid dollars coming into the state to sustain them. We've got to change that, and we've got to do it by quitting playing with your health care. I want to make sure everybody has good health care and affordable health care."

You get that by reaching across the aisle, Jones said, but Moore "would continue to divide us." For a moment, Jones got tongue-tied and finally said, "I just get frustrated at some point when you refuse to talk about subjects like this.

"I've been all over the state. I can't remember the number of places I've been ... some 200-250," Jones said. "Roy Moore's done two. He's not even in the state of Alabama this weekend. He went to the Army-Navy game, according to reports."

"Let me ask you a question," Jones continued. "What do you think about a United States senator that stays in hiding and won't even talk to the media and won't talk to his constituents? Y'all have had enough of federal officials up here that won't talk or hold meetings."

That last was a dig at North Alabama U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville), who canceled public town hall meetings for a time earlier this year.

Audience members listen carefully to Senate candidate Doug Jones speaking in Huntsville two days before the Dec. 12 election. (Lee Roop/lroop@al.com)

"I hear a lot of talk right now and a lot of national attention," Jones said. "Everybody is saying, 'Who is Alabama going to be?' This is not about who we are going to be. I know who we are. Roy Moore doesn't know who we are.

"We have felt this energy for a long time now," Jones said. "It's something you can't put your finger on. It's an energy and excitement out there from people of all walks of life. They know."

Jones said he isn't "a perfect candidate or a perfect person, and I haven't run a perfect campaign." But when you look at the race, he said, he's gone to the people over and over and he's talked straight.

Jones closed with his only reference to his prosecution of two Klansmen for the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing as a U.S. attorney. People in his office said it was a long shot, he said.

"It was a long shot," he said, "but when you're on the right side of history, you can accomplish great things. When you're on the right side of justice, you can accomplish great things. Well, folks, I'm telling you, I feel it. This campaign at this moment in time is on the right side of history, and we will not stop."

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