PENSACOLA, Fla. — It took him a while, but President Donald Trump eventually used a Friday-night rally to forcefully endorse Roy Moore, the embattled Alabama Republican running for the Senate.

Trump framed the election of Moore — who has been accused of numerous episodes of inappropriate sexual behavior, including child molestation — as vital to the country’s interest, imploring Alabamians to “get out and vote for Roy Moore.”


“Do it,” he added. “Do it.”

The president blasted Moore’s Democratic rival, Doug Jones, as a rubber stamp for his party’s leaders, argued that Republicans couldn’t afford to narrow their majority in the chamber, and cast doubt on one of Moore’s accusers.

“The future of this country cannot afford to lose a seat,” Trump said. “We can’t afford to have a liberal Democrat who is completely controlled by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. His name is Jones and he’s a total puppet.”

“We need somebody in that Senate seat who will vote for our Make America Great Again agenda, which involves tough on crime, tough on borders, building the wall, strengthening our military, continuing our great fight for our veterans,” he added.

On Saturday morning, Trump again pressed the case for Moore on Twitter, citing "A big contingent of very enthusiastic Roy Moore fans at the rally last night," a crowd he said was "loud, loving and really smart."

On either side of his rally endorsement, Trump offered an array of red-meat soundbites that would have been at home during any of his 2016 presidential rallies. It was a mix of talking points and familiar targets for the president. He mocked Hillary Clinton in two separate riffs — eliciting cheers of “Lock her up” — and twice claimed to have won by a landslide the election in which he lost the popular vote.

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Trump talked about the need for a border and restricted immigration. He decried a “rigged” and “broken” system. And he savaged the media, which he said had been making numerous corrections recently because he was now president. “They’ve been apologizing, left and right,” he said.

Trump pressed the idea that he was leading a surging economy, buoyed by fresh job numbers that show low unemployment, and touted the GOP’s tax bill, which he said he hoped was a “Christmas gift” to the American people.

The rally, in a Pensacola arena, was just over the state line from Alabama — a move that White House advisers acknowledged reflected a measure of ambivalence over Moore. The candidate has strenuously denied the accusations levied against him by a long line of women, who have said that the former state judge pursued them sexually while he was in his 30s and they were teenagers.

The president tried to buttress Moore’s case. He noted that earlier in the day, one of Moore’s accusers had admitted that, prior to going public with her allegations, she made a revision to a yearbook that she had said Moore signed for her when she was in high school.

“So, did you see what happened today? You know, the yearbook? There was a little mistake made,” Trump said.

The president also went after the accuser’s well-known attorney, Gloria Allred, who during the 2016 election had represented a woman who had accused then-candidate Trump of sexual misconduct.

“Anytime you see her,” Trump said of Allred, “you know there is trouble.”

With just four days until the Dec. 12 special election, Moore has been focusing on consolidating the conservative vote — and hopes that Trump’s appeal will help. Pensacola is part of the Mobile, Alabama, media market, where a substantial percentage of the state’s voters live. Moore, a controversial former state Supreme Court chief justice with a four-decade-long political career, has long underperformed with the state’s Republican voters, and his standing in the race has been threatened by the accusations against him.

With the president’s endorsement, the Republican National Committee and the pro-Trump America First Action super PAC have been spending on behalf of Moore — expenditures that have helped the outspent candidate. The GOP establishment donor class has shunned Moore in the wake of the accusations against him.

As the race draws to a close, the White House is considering taking other steps to boost Moore, including flooding the state with robocalls, text messages and emails. While the president’s popularity has ebbed elsewhere, he remains overwhelmingly popular in conservative Alabama. The administration has reviewed polling that shows Moore with a narrow but steady lead — and is confident that he will win.

Trump’s decision to weigh in on behalf of Moore has infuriated senior Republicans, many of whom have abandoned him and worry that his election will tar the GOP amid a national dialogue over sexual harassment. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, among others, has warned that Moore would probably face an ethics review once he arrived in Washington. Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, the National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman, has said that he would support Moore’s expulsion.

After the allegations first surfaced, the president was silent. But then he underwent an evolution. Behind the scenes, he expressed skepticism that Moore’s accusers were telling the truth. Prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, he bashed Jones. Then, on Monday, he issued a full-on endorsement of Moore on Twitter.

During a private chat with congressional Republicans a little later, he made the case that Moore had denied the accusations and that Republicans couldn’t afford to lose the seat to Democrats.

It was the second time Trump ventured out of Washington for the special election, which was triggered when the previous holder of the Senate seat, Jeff Sessions, was confirmed as attorney general. In September, Trump flew to Huntsville, Alabama, to campaign for the appointed incumbent, Sen. Luther Strange, who went on to lose the GOP runoff to Moore.

During that appearance, the president warned that Moore could be vulnerable against a Democrat in a general election.

