Roy Moore delivers red meat for the base in Washington speech

Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore delivered a red-meat speech to an audience of Christian conservatives on Friday, remarks that played  to his base ahead of a December special election. 

The former state Supreme Court justice criticized his party for abandoning the plan to repeal ObamaCare in favor of a replacement plan, defended his religious conservatism and rattled off Bible quotes from memory.

“When Donald Trump was elected in November 2016, shortly thereafter we had a spring of great hope in our country. If you were like me, you felt a burden lifted from your soul,” Moore said Friday at the Family Research Center’s Values Voter Summit, a Christian conservative conference in Washington D.C.

“God has a reason for that. He’s given us a window of opportunity — a time we can bring our nation back or suffer the consequences. It’s a time of action, not a time to sit back and do nothing.” 

The GOP establishment fought to defeat Moore in last month’s run-off election, fearing his penchant for controversy on issues like Islam and gay marriage could be a liability for the party in next year’s election. But he defeated Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) easily, putting him on track to win the seat in December.

Moore during the speech took on critics who, in his telling, argue that politics is no place for God. 

“When you forget God, you can forget politics. When you forget God you forget, just like it says, your heritage, your rights, your freedoms,” he said. 

“This is an awful moment for our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time as this? I would be guilty of treason toward my country and an act of disloyalty to the ward the majesty of heaven, which I revere.”

Moore’s insurgent Senate bid was backed by former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon and his allies, who are looking to ride the anti-establishment wave to knock off incumbents in 2018.

Americans’ “frustration” with the “stagnancy in Washington D.C … will have an effect in the 2018 elections,” Moore said Friday.

Moore will be facing off in December against Democrat Doug Jones, a former federal prosecutor who prosecuted men responsible for the infamous 1963 Birmingham church bombings. Public polling shows Moore with a single-digit lead, a close enough race that Democrats are considering pumping resources into the deep-red state in the hope that Moore’s controversial reputation could give way to a major upset. 

Jones has seized on media reports highlighting Moore’s most contentious comments in his career. But Moore echoed one of those controversial comments on Friday afternoon, where he connected a drift away from God to mass shootings. 

“We need to go back to recognize that that God still has the same message for America today. Why have we had instances like in Las Vegas where 58 people were killed, in Orlando where 49 people were killed, and Virginia Tech, some 32?” he asked.

“In Washington’s farewell address, he addressed morality. Back then, they knew what they had to do —they said virtue and morality was the necessary spring of popular government … Our foundation has been shaken, it’s been shaken to the core because we have forgotten the source of our morality.