Gary Herbert, the governor of Utah, has waded into the Albama Senate race, calling Steve Bannon a ‘Mormon bigot’
Utah governor Gary Herbert has branded Steve Bannon a ‘Mormon bigot’ after he accused Mitt Romney of using his faith to dodge the Vietnam draft.
Mr Herbert waded into the row between the alt-Right figurehead and GOP stalwart on Thursday amid a highly contentious Senate race in Alabama.
Bannon made his comments about Romney on Wednesday as he stumped for Roy Moore, the alleged sex offender and Republican candidate in the deep-red state.
Romney previously said electing Moore, who has been ahead in polls for most of the race, would be ‘a stain on the GOP and on the nation.’
Mr Herbert told KSL Newsradio’s ‘The Doug Wright Show’: ‘This smacks of good old-fashioned Mormon bigotry.
‘I think that’s what Steve Bannon has demonstrated with his comment, is just he’s a Mormon bigot. There’s more than one way to in fact go out there and do good things for your fellow man.’
Herbert attacked Bannon (pictured) after the former White House chief strategist lambasted Mitt Romney, accusing him of using his religion to dodge the Vietnam War
It comes after Bannon told a Moore rally in Fairhope that the candidate ‘has more honor and integrity in [his] pinky finger than [Romney’s] entire family has in its DNA.’
Bannon noted that Moore graduated from the United States Military Academy, while Romney received a draft deferment in 1966 for his missionary work in France where he spent two-and-a-half years.
He added, ‘You hid behind your religion. You went to France to be a missionary while guys were dying in rice paddies.’
Moore looked to be pulling back ahead in the Albama race before Romney’s intervention, having regained a lead in the polls, secured the backing of the President, and got the RNC back on side.
Bannon’s rebuke to Romney came after he attacked Roy Moore, the Senate candidate for Alabama, who Bannon is backing
But the latest numbers show the race is still anyone’s, with a Big League/Gravis poll on December 5 showing Jones up by four, while a Raycom News Network/Strategy Research survey published the following day had Moore up by seven.
The election is due to take place on December 12 and was triggered after Jeff Sessions was called to serve as Trump’s Attorney General.
The winner will serve the remainder of Sessions’ term, due to end in 2020.