Reportedly He Will Not Have Trump’s Support –

By Glynn Wilson –

MOBILE, Ala. — Apparently it’s no longer a trial balloon, and Alabama is now back in the national spotlight.

Word began to leak out Wednesday on Twitter, then on CNN and other news outlets on television and the web, that President Donald Trump’s least favorite attorney general, and Alabama’s former Senator Jeff Sessions, will announce he will run for his old seat back on Thursday.

This is one day before the qualifying deadline on Friday, and on the eve of Trump’s announced visit to the LSU-Alabama game in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, where controversy continues to build on whether Trump will be booed like he was at the Sunday night fifth game of the World Series at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.

According to an early account by the New York Times quoting “a Republican official,” Sessions’ “tumultuous tenure as President Trump’s attorney general lasted less than two years,” but indications are according to sources on Twitter, that Sessions will come out in favor of Trump and against his impeachment in his announcement on Thursday and in his campaign.

Speaking at Northwestern University on Tuesday, Sessions reportedly said, “The president is allowed to fire you, but fortunately he doesn’t get to shoot you.”

Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks at Northwestern on Trump’s presidency, policies

Sessions has remained largely out of the public eye for the past year, effectively exiled from Republican politics, since he was forced out of the Trump administration last November, according to the Times. “He had repeatedly clashed with the president over his decision to recuse himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.”

Opponents in the Republican primary, including former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, already plan to use Trump’s words against Sessions. You will recall that Trump relentlessly attacked Sessions both in public and in private, calling him “scared stiff” and his leadership “a total joke,” among other insults, ultimately forcing him to resign.

“Jeff Sessions entrance into this race is not a surprise. He’s been out of the swamp for less than two years, and now he’s itching to go back,” Tuberville tweeted. “He’s another career politician that the voters of Alabama will reject. As AG, he failed the President at his point of greatest need.”

Jeff Sessions entrance into this race is not a surprise. He’s been out of the swamp for less than two years, and now he’s itching to go back. He’s another career politician that the voters of Alabama will reject. As AG, he failed the President at his point of greatest need.

— Tommy Tuberville (@TTuberville) November 6, 2019

“By choosing to run for office now, Mr. Sessions risks reigniting attacks from his former boss, who could undermine his standing among the Republican voters he needs to win next year’s crowded primary election on March 3,” according to the Times.

They say Trump still blames Sessions for the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate Russian influence on the 2016 election, an investigation that included a probe into Trump’s role in that, ultimately ending in a report that was conclusive that Russia interfered in the election, but less clear on Trump’s involvement and leaving an obstruction of justice investigation up to Congress.

Just last weekend, according to the Times, Trump repeatedly denounced Sessions as a “jerk” and making it clear Sessions would not have his support, according to a person briefed on the discussions.

Publicly Trump has remained quiet, although some of his allies have begun expressing their disapproval. Minutes after the news of Sessions’s decision broke on Wednesday evening, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida declared on Twitter, “Jeff Sessions returning to the Senate is a terrible idea.”

Trump won Alabama, a very red conservative state, with 62 percent of the vote in 2016, and his support remains high among the state’s white male voters, and conservative Christians, especially Southern Baptists, the same voters who supported Republican Roy Moore in 2017.

Even the Times says this race is likely to be one of the most closely watched of the 2020 cycle, “and not only because of the lingering tension between Mr. Trump and Mr. Sessions.”

“Many Republicans are bracing for the possibility that Roy S. Moore, the former Alabama chief justice accused of fondling (and hitting on) teenage girls in his 30s, could once again become the nominee,” according to the Times, and it will be interesting to see who the president decides to throw his support and campaign money behind. He only reluctantly endorsed Moore in the special election in 2017 against Democrat Doug Jones from the safe haven of Pensacola, Florida. He would not be seen in the same room with Moore, although that was not true of Steve Bannon, a key adviser to Trump.

Bannon is now back from his own exile in Washington, D.C. and has set up an unofficial war room to fight Trump’s impeachment. Will he come back to support Moore again? This could really be fun.

Jump on the Truth Opportunity Bus to Counter Steve Bannon’s Trump Impeachment War Room

Moore won the 2017 special election Republican primary due to his loyal religious following, who are all down with getting rid of the separation of church and state and don’t seem to care about his strange sexual proclivities. Trump has kowtowed to these voters, vowing to remove impediments to using churches and non-profits for political purposes, now banned by the law but rarely enforced.

Jones became the first Democrat in a generation to win a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, and he did it by only 1.6 percent of the vote, by 21,924 votes, beating Moore with 49.97 percent of the vote to Moore’s 48.34 percent.

Moore announced in June that he would run again

“News of Mr. Sessions’s decision to run startled and dismayed national Republicans, who had hoped that he would step aside to avoid the possibility of being vilified by Mr. Trump — and to spare them the headache of a nationalized race in a state they hope to win back,” the Times reports.

Many are calling Jones “one of the most vulnerable” Democratic incumbents in the Senate, and Republicans would really like to get the seat back. Their path to retaining their 53-to-47 majority in the upper chamber may depend on it.

For his part, Senator Jones has been going about the duties of the office, handling routine legislation and trying to help the people of Alabama, on education issues, health care, and jobs, including fighting the trade war and bringing military and science jobs to Huntsville.

“I have been working hard to do the job the people of Alabama elected me to do,” Jones said, still reluctant to comment directly on the president or his policies, and insisting on waiting on all the facts to come out before taking a stand on impeachment.

But tonight, his campaign issued a fund raising blast with hints at how he will take on Sessions in the campaign.

“We’re going to tell everyone who’ll listen that this election is going to come down to five simple facts,” the Jones campaign says. “Jeff Sessions is too extreme, too out of touch, and too divisive for Alabama.”

“With all the chaos and division in Washington, we don’t need another hyper-partisan making things worse,” the campaign says. “We need to come together and actually get things done.”

The Jones campaign is blaming Sessions’ decision to run on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“This is a desperate move from McConnell because Doug’s beating the field handily right now,” according campaign official Doug Turner.

“Jeff Sessions doesn’t have an easy path to victory,” he said. “In fact, he’s facing a massive uphill battle. Mitch McConnell got Sessions into the race because he’s desperate. Doug … outraised the entire Republican field last quarter. And he’s leading in the polls. McConnell knows that.”

There is no doubt that Sessions’ decision to enter the race will focus the national spotlight on the state, so expect the campaign money and the national media to start rolling in.

For his part, Mobile Congressman Bradley Byrne has been hanging out with Matt Gaetz lately, even joining in the “storm the SCIFF” protest in the basement of the Capitol, and he has been urging Sessions not to run. He will be giving up his seat in Congress and his political career may depend on winning the Republican nomination and the Senate seat.

We will be in Tuscaloosa on Saturday to check in with Senator Jones and guest Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a old friend of Nick Saban’s, at a Tuscaloosa Democrats tailgate party on the Quad.

May see you there, or watch for a Facebook live video.

Meanwhile, earlier today, the University of Alabama Student Government Association released a statement on Twitter threatening to revoke the season football tickets of any organization on campus that was involved in protesting Trump’s visit on Saturday. But the SGA apologized later in the day, saying it was only concerned with student safety.