Trump: Moore’s loss proves ‘we need to put up GREAT Republican candidates’

President Trump said Wednesday that GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore’s loss in the Alabama special election the previous night showed that Republicans need to put forward “GREAT” candidates.

“If last night’s election proved anything, it proved that we need to put up GREAT Republican candidates to increase the razor thin margins in both the House and Senate,” Trump tweeted.

If last night’s election proved anything, it proved that we need to put up GREAT Republican candidates to increase the razor thin margins in both the House and Senate.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2017 

Trump has sought to distance himself from Moore following his upset defeat to Democrat Doug Jones in deep-red Alabama, tweeting after results came in that he had initially backed Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.), who was appointed in the seat in February, in the GOP primary runoff because Moore might not win the general election.

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Trump endorsed Moore for the Alabama race last week, despite a number of allegations of sexual misconduct against the former judge. Exit polls showed that a majority of voters believed the allegations to be true.

Jones’s victory marks a historic win in Alabama, where he will be the first Democrat to represent in the state in the Senate in more than two decades. He won a seat previously held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Jones’s win means that Republicans’ already slim majority in the Senate is even narrower; the number of GOP seats is now down from 52 to 51. 

Republicans had already struggled on key votes this year with their current two-seat majority, including failing in two major attempts to pass a repeal of ObamaCare this year.