President Trump on Tuesday evening endorsed former college football coach Tommy Tuberville over former attorney general Jeff Sessions in the Alabama Senate runoff election.
Tuberville “is a REAL LEADER who will never let MAGA/KAG, or our Country, down!” Trump wrote on Twitter. “He will be a great Senator for the people of Alabama. Coach Tommy Tuberville, a winner, has my Complete and Total Endorsement. I love Alabama!”
The endorsement comes after Trump mocked the former attorney general, who was an Alabama senator for 20 years before joining the Trump administration, for failing to best Tuberville in the Republican Senate primary. Sessions finished behind Tuberville by 1 percentage point, leading to a runoff scheduled for March 31.
“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!” Trump wrote on Twitter on March 4.
Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from involvement in the Russia investigation in 2017 came after investigators determined that Sessions met with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak during the campaign. Trump has continued to disparage the former attorney general ever since, even as Sessions has praised the president.