RT CNNPolitics: Sen.-elect Doug Jones of Alabama doesn’t join the several Senate Democrats calling for President Trump to step down: “I think we need to move on and not get distracted by those issues … I don’t think the President ought to resign righ… https://t.co/HLHkDQagsF
— Jenni Missye White (@Missycilious) December 17, 2017
Doug Jones, the Democrat who beat an alleged sexual predator, said Sunday that President Donald Trump actually shouldn’t step down over misconduct allegations. This bucks the recent trend of Democrats calling for POTUS’s resignation.
“Where I am right now is that those allegations were made before the election,” Jones said on State of the Union, “and so people had an opportunity to judge before that election. I think we need to move on and not get distracted by those issues.”
Host Jake Tapper pressed him: “I guess that the question is why should Al Franken resign if there are even more horrific allegations about President Trump and no one is calling for him to step down.”
Jones repeated his previous stance.
His comments actually echo that of Trump surrogates, like White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
“The people of this country had a decisive election supported President Trump, and we feel like these allegations have been answered through that process,” she said at at White House press briefing Monday.
Sexual misconduct allegations in recent months took down many men in power, including Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, Democratic Rep. John Conyers of Michigan and Republican Rep. Blake Fahrenthold of Texas, who newly announced plans to retire. Nonetheless, the president still has his job in spite of numerous claims. He denied allegations during the 2016 campaign, and promised to sue some of his accusers after the election (he hasn’t). This hasn’t stopped Democrats like Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania from calling for him to step down.
So Jones’ Sunday statement is striking, especially since he owes his political career in part to sexual misconduct allegations against GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore. Jones won the Dec. 12 special election to fill an Alabama senate seat. Normally, the Republican candidate would win by virtue of running in such a red state, but claims against Moore dented his campaign, and contributed to his loss.
[Screengrab via CNN]
