Trump promises Alabama Sen. Strange will ‘drain the swamp’
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — President Donald Trump implored his supporters Friday to get behind an establishment-backed incumbent in a Republican runoff race in Alabama, arguing that Sen. Luther Strange will “drain the swamp” and doesn’t know the Senate Majority Leader “at all.”
Acknowledging he was putting his own political capital on the line, the president insisted to thousands of cheering fans in Huntsville, Alabama, that backing Strange — who was appointed in February to temporarily fill the seat that opened up when Jeff Sessions became attorney general — would help further the Trump agenda.
“We can only win the fights and we can only drain the swamp if we have smart, tough, tenacious leaders who know who they are and know how to deliver,” Trump said. “Luther Strange is our man.”
Despite Trump’s endorsement and heavy spending by a super political action committee tied to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Strange remains locked in a tight race against former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, a jurist known for opposing gay marriage and pushing unsuccessfully for the public display of the Ten Commandments. The runoff vote will be held Tuesday.