Top Republican Offers the Lamest Possible Excuse for Ignoring Roy Moore's Islamophobia

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn on Wednesday became the highest-ranking Senate Republican to endorse Roy Moore—a man best known for hating LGBTQ people, Muslims, and people of color—in the race to fill Jeff Session’s Senate seat. In the process, he casually dismissed that time Moore said the first Muslim ever elected to Congress shouldn’t be allowed to serve because of his religion.

In a statement announcing the endorsement, Cornyn called Moore a “tireless advocate” who would follow in Sessions’ footsteps. When NBC News caught up with him to ask about Moore’s many well-documented ills—including his remarks that Representative Keith Ellison, of Minnesota, shouldn’t have been allowed to take the congressional oath because of his Muslim faith—Cornyn essentially shrugged, comparing the whole matter to a family tiff.

“I have disagreement within my own family, doesn’t mean I care for them any less, so I support the nominee of my party,” he told reporter Frank Thorp.

When asked about Moore’s numerous anti-LGBTQ remarks—specially the former Alabama Supreme Court justice’s comment that “homosexual conduct should be illegal”—Cornyn lamely told Thorp: “I don’t have to agree with somebody to support them over the Democratic nominee. I support the nominee of my party.”

There you have it, straight from the horse’s mouth: this Republican, along with the other GOP lawmakers falling into the party line to back Moore’s special election campaign, will back anyone with an “R” next to their name come Election Day, no matter how obscenely racist, homophobic, and Islamophobic they might be.