President Trump will likely oppose a Senate comeback bid by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a White House source told the Washington Examiner.
Sessions, 72, faces a Friday filing deadline to enter the race for the Alabama Senate seat he held for 20 years until he joined the Trump administration heading the Justice Department. That role lasted less than two years before Trump ousted Sessions, who had recused himself from a probe of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump is still angry with Sessions, saying the move subjected him to a lengthy special counsel investigation into allegations that he colluded with Moscow to defeat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
An endorsement is “not happening because of the old feud,” the White House source said.
If Sessions runs, GOP sources believe Trump could endorse one of the other Republicans running in the Senate primary. The president is quite popular in Alabama, and opposition from the president could upend Sessions’ return to Capitol Hill.
Sessions, who must file to run before Alabama’s Friday primary deadline, was once a Trump favorite. He shared Trump’s ambition to build a wall on the southern border, close illegal immigration loopholes, and was the first member of the Senate to endorse Trump early in the 2016 election.
In return for his loyalty to him during the campaign, Trump tapped Sessions to become his attorney general. However, their relationship quickly soured after the House and Senate Russia investigations launched.
Democrats called for Sessions to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation, which he did without previously informing the president of his decision to do so, angering Trump.
By November 2018, immediately after the midterm elections, Sessions left the Department of Justice at the behest of the president.
Should Sessions join the primary field this week, he would be competing against other primary candidates including Rep. Bradley Byrne, state Rep. Arnold Mooney, Roy Moore (the 2017 GOP nominee who was defeated by Democratic Sen. Doug Jones), former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, and Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill. The winner in fall 2020 will oppose Jones, widely considered the most vulnerable Democratic Senate incumbent seeking reelection.
Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby told reporters on Tuesday he thinks Sessions would be a “formidable” opponent at this point.
“Sessions is an old friend I worked with him 20 years. He’s talked with me. Whether he runs or not, Sessions has to make that decision. He knows that,” Shelby said. “I say if he runs, he would be a formidable candidate. If he doesn’t run, that’s up to him,” Shelby said.
The Republican primary is scheduled for March 3.
[Opinion: Despite Trump’s tantrums, Sessions would be great to have back in the Senate]
