The Trump curse lives on.
For those unfamiliar with the term, it seems that for those who sleight the President, bad luck soon follows.
For poor ol’ Jeff Sessions, the Trump Curse came knocking tonight when he lost a Senate Run-Off bid in Alabama.
From CNN:
Jeff Sessions lost an Alabama Senate GOP primary runoff on Tuesday to former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, CNN projects, a major blow to the former attorney general who faced fierce opposition to his candidacy from President Donald Trump.
Tuberville, who was endorsed by the President, will now advance to the general election as the Republican candidate set to take on incumbent Alabama Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in November. Jones, who pulled off an upset in the deep red state in a 2017 special election, is widely viewed as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat facing reelection in 2020. As a result, the race is likely to be the Republican Party’s best pick-up opportunity of the cycle.
The outcome of the race marks a significant political defeat for Sessions, who had been fighting to reclaim a Senate seat that he had previously held.
Sessions was the first US senator to endorse Trump in the 2016 presidential race and was once a prominent figure in the Trump administration as the top official leading the Justice Department. But he fell out of favor with the President and became a target of Trump’s attacks after he recused himself while serving as attorney general from the FBI probe into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.Trump was quick to celebrate the victory for his candidate of choice on Tuesday night, tweeting, “Tommy Tuberville WON big against Jeff Sessions. Will be a GREAT Senator for the incredible people of Alabama. @DougJones is a terrible Senator who is just a Super Liberal puppet for Schumer & Pelosi. Represents Alabama poorly. On to November 3rd.”
Donald Trump is no fan of his former Attorney General after he famously recused himself from the Russia Witch Hunt Investigation.
But to Sessions' credit, he played the role of humble public servant looking to do right in his latest bid for office.
From The Hill:
“I’ve taken the road less traveled. Not sought fame or fortune. My honor and integrity are far more important than these juvenile insults. Your scandal-ridden candidate is too cowardly to debate. As you know, Alabama does not take orders from Washington,” Sessions said.
Sessions said he was leaving with no regret, saying he had saved "the president's bacon" by following the law and recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
"I leave with no regrets. I was honored to serve the people of Alabama in the Senate and I was extraordinarily proud of the accomplishments we had as attorney general," he said in his speech.
"On recusal, I followed the law. I did the right thing, and I saved the president’s bacon in the process. Any other action to try to squelch an investigation in that environment would not have worked. It would have really been a catastrophe and I'm so glad it finally ended after a prolonged time and the president has been cleared," he added."
Instead of Jeff Sessions, Alabama will have the chance to elect former Auburn Football head coach, Tommy Tuberville.
From The Montgomery Advertiser:
Tuberville resumed campaigning in the state in late May, but the stops generally do not appear to receive press coverage, and the campaign does not appear to have announced Tuberville’s destinations ahead of time. The last scheduled event on his Facebook page was listed for June 14 in Brewton, though Tuberville appears to have made stops in Dothan, Mobile, and Lake Martin since then. Tuberville had no events listed on his Facebook page as of Monday afternoon.
The campaign did highlight Tuberville riding Air Force One with Trump on a trip to Texas earlier this month.
The former Auburn coach rejected a call from Sessions to hold a series of debates ahead of the election. In response to emailed questions about his campaign on Monday, the Tuberville campaign said that Jeff Sessions “abandoned President Trump from almost his first day as attorney general.”
Well Jeff, thank you for your service but it's time to move on.
The President has a fight ahead of him and you missed the call to arms.
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