The special election for the U.S. Senate in Alabama ended last week, but failed Republican candidate and alleged child sexual predator Roy Moore isn't done collecting cash and spreading the blame.
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Moore's campaign has spent the past week raising money for an "Election Integrity Fund" and targeting Muslims and gays on Facebook, while Moore still refuses to concede despite having no chance of a recount.
The Alabama secretary of state's office announced Wednesday it had received about 5,000 overseas and provisional ballots for the special election that was held December 12. That's well below the number of total ballots needed to trigger a recount, let alone let Moore overcome the 20,715-vote lead of the winner, Democrat Doug Jones.
In other words, from a numbers standpoint, it's literally impossible that Moore could have won in a recount.
But that math hasn't stopped Moore from soliciting campaign money from his supporters. As of Thursday afternoon, Moore has raised about $70,000 as of Thursday for his election integrity fund, the donation page says.
The fund received $10,000 in donations since Tuesday alone, according to a campaign fundraising email, which said the fund was meant to provide resources for "sorting through and organizing" reports of voter fraud, none of which have been substantiated.
According to Federal Elections Commission guidelines, excess campaign funds can be donated to a 501(c) nonprofit organization of the campaign's choosing. FEC guidelines also allow Moore to use the funds to set up a political action committee in support of another candidate seeking office.
Moore has refused to concede the election, despite calls to do so from President Donald Trump, who campaigned for the former judge even after the rest of the GOP had abandoned Moore over his sexual misconduct scandals.
Meanwhile, Moore's campaign Facebook page has been posting articles that imply gays and Muslims played a part in his defeat.
On Wednesday night, the page posted an article from Advocate, an LGBT-issues publication, with the headline, "Doug Jones's Gay Son Is 'Thrilled' by the Alabama Win." (The post was deleted Thursday after receiving heavy attention on social media.) Two days earlier, it posted an article from the far-right news site WorldNetDaily called, "How Muslims and Marxists delivered for Doug Jones."
In both instances, Moore's page included no commentary with the links. But dozens of Moore's supporters left homophobic and anti-Islamic comments on the stories, ridiculing Jones' son for being homosexual and claiming that Muslims organizations in the U.S. are "aiming for Sharia Law in America" and are "funding international terrorism killing Christians."
For years, Moore has been accused of harboring homophobic, racist, sexist, and xenophobic views.
In 2006, Moore authored an anti-Islamic op-ed for WorldNetDaily claiming that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in Congress. "Common sense alone dictates that in the midst of a war with Islamic terrorists we should not place someone in a position of great power who shares their doctrine," Moore wrote.
In 2011, Moore said on a radio show that all Constitutional amendments after the tenth—which includes those that ended slavery, protects the civil rights of minorities, and enfranchized women—should be abolished. "That would eliminate many problems. You know, people don't understand how some of these amendments have completely tried to wreck the form of government that our forefathers intended," he said.
On the campaign trail, Moore doubled down on his apparent tolerance for slavery, arguing that the last time America was great was in the 19th century because family bonds were stronger. "Even though we had slavery—they cared for one another," he said in September.
Moore's campaign did not return messages from Newsweek.
