Republicans blame Steve Bannon for Roy Moore's shocking loss in Alabama

REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

Steve Bannon and Roy Moore.

• Republicans are slamming former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon for backing GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama.
• Bannon and his media outlet Breitbart News were some of the most vocal Moore supporters during the Alabama special election.

Many Republicans slammed political strategist Steve Bannon for throwing his weight behind former judge Roy Moore, who lost to Senator-elect Doug Jones in a massive upset that delivered Alabama's first Democratic-controlled Senate seat in decades.

On Tuesday, Jones, a Democrat, clinched the US Senate seat in Alabama in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Bannon, the former top adviser to President Donald Trump, threw his full weight behind Moore in a contested GOP primary, and stayed loyal to him despite numerous allegations of sexual misconduct and assault. 

Top allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released statements after Moore's loss blasting Bannon, the head of far-right site Breitbart News who pledged to run opponents against candidates backed by McConnell if the they were not sufficiently conservative.

"This is a brutal reminder that candidate quality matters regardless of where you are running," Steven Law, president of McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund PAC, said in a statement. "Not only did Steve Bannon cost us a critical Senate seat in one of the most Republican states in the country, but he also dragged the President of the United States into this fiasco."

Some prominent so-called "never-Trump" Republicans also blasted Bannon, even going as far as attempting to discredit women who accused Moore of sexual misconduct. 

Some conservative media figures like the Drudge Report also blamed Bannon for Moore's loss.

Other top Republicans and Trump allies also blamed Bannon on background to reporters.