After months of silence as Jeff Sessions sought a return to the Senate, President Trump mocked his former attorney general in a tweet that was tantamount to an endorsement of his Republican opponent Tommy Tuberville ahead of their runoff election in Alabama to decide the GOP nomination.
Tuberville narrowly edged Sessions for first place in Tuesday’s Republican Senate primary, 33.4% to 31.6%. But the former head football coach at Auburn University fell short of a majority of the vote, leaving the nomination to be decided in an April 14 runoff election. The winner will take on Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in November. Enter Trump.
The president is popular with Republican voters in Alabama, so much so that a signal of support for Tuberville or Sessions could be the difference-maker in the race. Sessions, among Trump’s earliest supporters in the 2016 campaign, was for years a senator from Alabama before being appointed attorney general.
On Wednesday, Trump appeared to signal his preference for Tuberville in a tweet that lampooned Sessions’s second place finish and accused him of disloyalty for his handling of the Russia investigation that began under his leadership of the Justice Department.
“This is what happens to someone who loyally gets appointed Attorney General of the United States & then doesn’t have the wisdom or courage to stare down & end the phony Russia Witch Hunt. Recuses himself on FIRST DAY in office, and the Mueller Scam begins!” he wrote.
This is what happens to someone who loyally gets appointed Attorney General of the United States & then doesn’t have the wisdom or courage to stare down & end the phony Russia Witch Hunt. Recuses himself on FIRST DAY in office, and the Mueller Scam begins! https://t.co/2jGnRgOS6h
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2020
The president did not endorse a candidate prior to the primary and has previously criticized Sessions for recusing himself from the two-year investigation into Russian election interference and Trump’s 2016 campaign in March of 2017, two months after Trump took office. Last year, Sessions told the Washington Examiner in an interview that he has no regrets for his handling of the Russia investigation or his decision to recuse himself.
Whoever wins the primary is in position to claim the seat as race analysts have predicted Jones, who won in 2018 against Republican Roy Moore, will have a hard time winning reelection.
