‘This is what happens to someone who … doesn’t have the wisdom or courage to stare down & end the phony Russia Witch Hunt…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Facing a primary runoff to reclaim his former Senate seat in Alabama, ex-Attorney General Jeff Sessions received no support from President Donald Trump.
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
Sessions fell well short of the threshold needed to secure an outright majority, Politico reported. He will now move to a March 31 runoff with former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville for the Republican nomination.
But Trump, whose fraught relationship with one of his earliest 2016 advocates began when Sessions recused himself from the Mueller investigation into Russian collusion, made clear that he was backing Tuberville during a deluge of post-election tweets on Wednesday.
The move reflects Trump’s confidence over his own standing in the deep-red state, in which he secured 96.2 percent of the vote during his Tuesday primary.
Sessions lost to Tuberville by nearly 8,000 votes—or about 1 percent—in a three-way race that also included Rep. Bradley Byrne, a conservative Trump supporter whose voters are likely to be swayed by the president’s endorsement.
The seat is a must-win in the November election, where Trump, should he be re-elected, faces the prospect of an even narrower Senate margin than the current 53-47 GOP majority.
Several incumbent Republicans—including those in Colorado, Maine and North Carolina—are likely to see their efforts to defend their seats come down to the wire.
Alabama remains the best hope of a seat gain, with Sen. Doug Jones increasing his already vulnerable standing after backing Trump’s recent impeachment during the Senate trial.
Jones clinched the seat after Sessions’s appointment as attorney general largely due to the controversies surrounding Republican candidate Roy Moore following a flood of dark money and a smear campaign from left-wing mega-donors.
During Sessions’s brief tenure as attorney general, Trump routinely lambasted him as a pushover.
Facing a precarious political position, Sessions seemed to demure from a direct attack back on the president. On Tuesday night, he told a crowd in Mobile that he was the best equipped, in fact, to support Trump, according to US News and World Report.
“Anyone can say they are for the Trump agenda, but talk is cheap, but I have fought on the great issues of our day and won,” Sessions said. “We have this opportunity to turn the Trump agenda into reality, and I am the man for that job.”