President Trump touted Jeff Sessions’ rivals, a day after the president’s ex-attorney general announced he planned to seek his old Senate seat.
‘He’s got tough competition,’ Trump told reporters outside the White House Friday. ‘You’ve got the football coach, Tommy is doing really well, you have some good people running in Alabama, we’ll see what happens.’
Trump, for now, said he won’t be endorsing Sessions, who he fired last year, hammered on Twitter and occasionally mocked – like the time he put on a faux Southern drawl to mimic Sessions saying, ‘I’m gonna recuuuse myself,’ at the annual CPAC conference.
President Trump said that his former Attorney General Jeff Sessions will have ‘tough competition’ as Sessions tries to win back his U.S. Senate seat in Alabama
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions annouced he was running for U.S. Senate Thursday night on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’ Sessions previously served in the Senate before becoming President Trump’s first attorney general. He was fired a year ago
In his first campaign ad, which also debuted Thursday, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he would support the Trump agenda if elected to U.S. Senate in Alabama
While Sessions was the first U.S. senator to back Trump’s then-longshot bid for the White House, the two men had a falling out once Sessions, as attorney general, recused himself from the Russia investigation.
That move put into motion Sessions’ deputy Rod Rosenstein’s eventual decision to appoint Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in the aftermath of Trump firing FBI Director James Comey.
But Sessions is still on team Trump, he said, as he rolled out his Senate run Thursday with an appearance on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ on Fox News Channel, and debuted a first campaign ad.
‘When I left President Trump cabinet, did I write a tell-all book? No. Did I go on CNN and attack the president? Nope. Have I said a cross word about our president? Not one time,’ Sessions said in the ad. ‘And I’ll tell you why. First, that would be dishonorable. I was there to serve his agenda, not mine. Second the president is doing a great job – for America and Alabama.’
‘And he has my strong support,’ Sessions added.
On Fox, Carlson asked Sessions if he had the president’s support.
‘Well, I hope so,’ the former attorney general said. ‘I think he will respect my work. I was there for the Trump agenda every day I was in the Senate. No doubt about it, I was the first Republican – first senator to endorse him.’
When Trump was asked about Sessions Friday, he pointed out that he hadn’t gotten involved.
‘I saw he said nice things about me last night, but we’ll have to see,’ Trump said. ‘I haven’t made a determination.’
When a reporter asked the president if he still held a grudge against Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia probe, Trump answered, ‘I don’t even think about that.’
The president then talked about the ‘good candidates’ of Alabama, including Tommy Tuberville, a
former college football coach.
Tuberville, Sessions and several other GOP candidates will compete in a Republican primary in the state in March.
Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway suggested Thursday to DailyMail.com that Trump would likely back Sessions if he got through the primary stage of the race.
‘Well we’d love to have a Republican senator there,’ she said. ‘We think Doug Jones has been a reliable liberal vote on way too many things, really disappointing, obviously not representing the interests of the people of Alabama.’
After Sessions vacated his Senate seat to join the administration, Democrat Doug Jones won in a shock special election against Republican Roy Moore, who had been accused of acting inappropriately toward teenage girls as a bachelor in his 30s.
‘Look Alabama’s a place where my approval numbers are very good. I think I won by 42 points,’ Trump said Friday.
Trump won by about 28 points over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
‘I love Alabama. I’m going to watch a very good football game on Saturday, which is tomorrow, with LSU that’s going to be great,’ he added.
Trump will attend the University of Alabama game against LSU, as he’s backing a GOP candidate for Louisiana governor over a Democratic incumbent.