This is not the least bit surprising. Roy Moore can’t lose graciously, he needs to draw the entire affair out painfully. Although numerous media outlets called the race for Doug Jones shortly before 10:30 pm EST, Moore is being obstinate. The Hill:
“At this point, we do not have a final decision on the outcome tonight,” Moore’s campaign chairman Bill Armistead told supporters.
“When the vote is this close, it is not over,” Moore said.
Alabama state law requires an automatic recount when election results are within 0.5 percent.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Jones holds 49.9 percent of the vote, compared to Moore’s 48.4 percent, a 1.5 percent gap, according to The New York Times.
Shortly after Moore’s speech, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (R) was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he expected “anything other than Mr. Jones being the next senator from the state of Alabama.”
“I would find that highly unlikely to occur, Jake,” Merrill replied.
And in the twitterverse, the post mortems have already begun.
1) MCConnell deserves a lot of the blame for Alabama. Mo Brooks would have won by 20% of the vote, and McConnell interference hurt badly. 2)Peter Strzok, Lisa Page text messages show how CORRUPT the SC Mueller and his team are. Wow! More tomorrow.
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) December 13, 2017
Luther Strange would have won in a landslide… Just too much crazy in nerve racking times. There IS a limit! pic.twitter.com/vketz7G1OR
— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) December 13, 2017
Apparently it’s too much for Moore to absorb that he’s a dinosaur and that Alabama is moving forward and into the future without him, rather than voting for the retrograde views, not to mention sheer evil, that Moore represented. And look how fast the far right is to denounce him and claim that other candidates were viable, tsk tsk. No loyalty among right wingnuts.