During a rally for Doug Jones in Birmingham on Monday, Alabama native Charles Barkley urged voters in the state to support the former federal prosecutor in his bid to become the first Democratic senator to represent the state since the 1990s.
"At some point, we got to stop looking like idiots to the nation," the NBA and Auburn University legend said. "I love Alabama, but at some point we got to draw a line in the sand and show we're not a bunch of damn idiots." Jones' opponent, Republican Roy Moore, has espoused controversial views on many topics and been accused by several women of groping them when they were teenagers and he was in his early 30s, and Barkley said he's "embarrassed" that Moore is even on the ballot. "If somebody told you guys, 'Put this election in a movie script' … you would throw it in the trash," he added. "You'd say there's no way possible this other dude could be leading in any polls."
Jones made a gentler appeal, telling supporters the election is "going to be one of the most significant in our state's history, and we've gotta make sure that at this crossroads in Alabama's history, we take the right road." Catherine Garcia