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After hedging his bets early, the president has come off the sidelines for Moore in a big way.
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20171211 WHW
Here’s the president’s message to Alabama voters ahead of Tuesday’s special election for the U.S. Senate: “Get out and vote for Roy Moore.” That’s what Donald Trump said Friday in Pensacola, just across the state line in Florida and well within the Mobile media market.

And it was the exact opposite of the message from the most senior elected Republican in Alabama, Senator Richard Shelby. Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Shelby said he’d “rather see a Republican win” but that he “couldn’t vote for Roy Moore, I didn’t vote for Roy Moore.” Read more...
One More Thing—Roy Moore’s small-but-solid lead over Doug Jones is the biggest reason why Trump has gone all-in for Moore. Besides the endorsement, the Pensacola rally, and the reentry by the Trump-controlled Republican National Committee into the race, Trump has cut a robocall on behalf of Moore. All this after Trump spent the weeks following the initial Washington Post story waffling about his support for Moore. What changed? Trump is telling those close to him that he thinks Moore will win, and for the president, that’s what matters.

The future of the party, the revulsion from nearly all of Moore’s prospective Senate colleagues, the fact that Trump’s own daughter Ivanka has said she believes the women accusing Moore of improper sexual contact—all of those concerns can be cast aside if Moore wins. Expect Trump to take full credit for a Moore victory. And if Jones pulls it out? Trump will be the first to remind America that, after all, he endorsed Luther Strange (who would have won easily!) first.
Trump-Foe-Turned-Friend Tweet of the Day 

Mark It Down—“We will respect anything that the two parties come together on.” —United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, on whether East Jerusalem could remain the seat of a Palestinian government, December 10, 2017
Must-Read of the Day—An in-depth look from the New York Times’s best-sourced White House reporters on how television and Twitter loom large in President Trump’s average day. Here’s an excerpt:

Around 5:30 each morning, President Trump wakes and tunes into the television in the White House’s master bedroom. He flips to CNN for news, moves to Fox & Friends for comfort and messaging ideas, and sometimes watches MSNBC’s Morning Joe because, friends suspect, it fires him up for the day.

Energized, infuriated—often a gumbo of both—Mr. Trump grabs his iPhone. Sometimes he tweets while propped on his pillow, according to aides. Other times he tweets from the den next door, watching another television. Less frequently, he makes his way up the hall to the ornate Treaty Room, sometimes dressed for the day, sometimes still in night clothes, where he begins his official and unofficial calls.

United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley confirmed Sunday that the Trump administration will not seek to prevent the U.S. Olympic team from participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. Asked on Fox News Sunday whether America was sending a full team, Haley responded, “Yes, we are.”

She continued: “We’re doing in this Olympics what we’ve done in every single Olympics. We’ve always talked about keeping our athletes safe. This is no different. And we are looking at the circumstances just to make sure we’re doing everything we can.” Read more...
Non-Trump Tweet of the Day
Mueller Watch—From my colleague Andrew Egger this weekend: “Did Paul Manafort Violate the Judge's Gag Order?”

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors filed evidence late Friday afternoon to demonstrate that Paul Manafort violated a court-mandated gag order by contributing to an op-ed defending himself in a Ukrainian newspaper.

In a 41-page filing, prosecutors argue that Manafort, who is on trial for charges including money laundering and failing to file as a foreign agent, spent half an hour editing a column defending him written by former Ukrainian official Oleg Voloshyn.

The op-ed, published over Mueller’s objections in the Ukrainian Kyiv Post, condemns American media who “falsely claim that Paul Manafort lobbied Russian interests in Ukraine” in service of the “dubious goal of undermining Trump’s presidency.”

Song of the Day—“Windfall” by Son Volt