Republicans are already blaming Alabama Senate loss on Stephen Bannon

Moments after several media outlets projected Democrat Doug Jones winning the Alabama special Senate election, the president and CEO of the Senate Leadership Fund super PAC released a short but scathing rebuke of the person he holds responsible for the stunning loss.

"This is a brutal reminder that candidate quality matters regardless of where you are running," Steven Law said. "Not only did Steve Bannon cost us a critical Senate seat in one of the most Republican states in the country, but he also dragged the president of the United States into his fiasco." The Republican candidate was Roy Moore, a former judge who was accused by several women of groping them when he was in his early 30s and they were teenagers. Bannon, President Trump's former chief strategist, appeared at a Monday night rally for Moore, where he railed against Republicans who refused to support Moore, while Trump tweeted multiple times in favor of Moore and recorded robo-calls on his behalf. The Senate Leadership Fund is close with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

The chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Sen. Cory Gardner (Colo.), took a different approach in the statement he made Tuesday night. "Tonight's results are clear — the people of Alabama deemed Roy Moore unfit to serve in the U.S. Senate," he said. "I hope Senator-elect Doug Jones will do the right thing and truly represent Alabama by choosing to vote with the Senate Republican majority." Nice try, senator.

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