Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions stated on Thursday that if the state of Alabama re-elects him as their United States senator in 2020, he will be President Donald Trump’s “number one supporter” in the upper chamber.
“You know what the president feels about your ultimate decision two years ago, to recuse yourself from the Russian matter,” said Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer. “We are all well aware about your history together. When was the last time you communicated with him?”
“It is been some time. I haven’t talked to him recently,” Sessions replied. “We had a disagreement on that but he knows that in the Senate I was his number one supporter.”
“I was his first supporter, but more than that I was the number one advocate for the issues he ran on,” he continued. “If I go back to the Senate I can tell you, I will be his number one supporter in the Senate and I will be his number one advocate for the issues that he is talking about because they are issues that the average American cares about.”
Sessions held Alabama’s junior Senate seat for four terms before he was appointed to the role of attorney general under Trump. Trump and Sessions’ relationship soured after the former AG recused himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Trump ultimately forced Sessions’ resignation from the Department of Justice.
Sessions announced more than a week ago that he was officially throwing his hat into the ring and running to regain the U.S. Senate seat in Alabama that he previously occupied. While announcing his candidacy, he reiterated his support for the president and said he will largely be running on his agenda. However, Trump told reporters earlier in November that he is still unsure whether or not he will be endorsing Sessions.
“Well I haven’t gotten involved. I saw he said very nice things about me last night. But we’ll have to see,” he said before departing the White House on November 8th. “I haven’t made a determination.”
Hemmer further pressed Sessions on whether he believes Trump will ultimately support his candidacy.
“I hope so. I’m certainly going to hope that will happen and he said he’s not going to attack me in the race,” Sessions replied. “We are taking our case to the people of Alabama and they will decide who their next senator is. It’s not my seat, it’s the people’s seat in Alabama. That’s who I will be asking.”
Democrats won control of Alabama’s Senate seat in 2017 after the state held a special election to replace Sessions, who vacated the seat when he was tapped to head the Justice Department. Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) defeated his Republican challenger Roy Moore, who faced massive blowback after allegations arose that Moore had molested a teenager in the 1970s.
Despite the controversy, Jones won the special election by less than 2% of the vote and is now considered to be one of the most vulnerable incumbent senators in the 2020 election cycle. The typically red state voted for Trump by nearly 30 points.