At Roy Moore rally, Bannon mocks Alabama grad Joe Scarborough for not making 'the cut' at Bannon's elite 'Yankee' alma maters

Stephen Bannon goes after Joe Scarborough
(Image credit: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

Stephen Bannon, Breitbart News chairman and former strategist to President Trump, was a main speaker at Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore's closing rally in Midland City on Monday night, and he pitched Moore as a Trump-like economic nationalist who will help bring an end to Trump's troubles in Washington. He had some barbs for the Republicans who have criticized Moore or stayed on the sidelines, including an implicit rebuke of Ivanka Trump, who'd said "there is a special place in hell for people who prey on children," as Moore is accused of having done. "There's a special place in hell for Republicans who should know better," Bannon said.

Bannon also had plenty to criticize about the news media, or "opposition party," accusing news organizations of trying to personally destroy Moore, presumably by reporting the collaborated accusations from several women about Moore fondling or dating them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. Bannon made an ill-advised dig at Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, too.

"By the way, Morning Joe, you called me a Yankee the other day, just because I'm from Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy," Bannon said. "That's right, Joe, I got into some Yankee schools, Georgetown and Harvard, that I don't think you made the cut on, brother. Just because a Southerner went to a Yankee school, Joe, doesn't make you a Yankee." Scarborough, a native of Georgia, is a graduate of the University of Alabama — as is Moore, who got his law degree there in 1977. Scarborough saw the easy pitch and swung.

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Other speakers at the rally included former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, Moore's former Vietnam War friend Bill Sailing, and his wife, Kayla Moore. Moore faces Democrat Doug Jones in Tuesday's special election.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.