Orrin Hatch says Trump had no choice but to endorse Roy Moore

Sen. Orrin Hatch.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

When it comes down to it, the fact that President Trump needs as many Republicans in the Senate as possible outweighs Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore being accused by several women of groping them when they were teens and he was in his early 30s, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Monday.

Trump officially endorsed Moore on Monday, a little over a week before the people of Alabama go to the polls to vote for Moore or his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney who successfully prosecuted two members of the KKK for the killing of four black girls in the 1963 bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church. Hatch said he doesn't think Trump "had any choice but to do that" because "he needs every Republican he can get so he can put his agenda through. So that's the only Republican you can possibly get down there."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.