A Twitter spat that began on Friday night escalated Saturday afternoon between President Donald Trump and his former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who is a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama.
It began with a tweet from Trump promoting Sessions’ opponent, former Auburn head football coach Tommy Tuberville. It led to a response from Sessions as having been “damn fortunate” for the recusal.
The back-and-forth resumed Saturday morning, with Sessions posting another tweet directed at Trump about the people of Alabama and their relationship.
Trump responded with a series of tweets, once again questioning Sessions’ 2017 decision to recuse himself from investigations tied to the 2016 presidential election, which included allegations of Russian interference in the election, and the possibility of Russian collusion. He then suggested Sessions “drop out.”
A Cygnal poll conducted May 7-10 among 607 likely GOP primary voters, Tuberville leads Sessions by 23 points.
Sessions finished second in the March 3 Republican primary, two points behind Tuberville. However, shortly after the primary, Trump gave his support to Tuberville. Sessions and Tuberville face off in a July 14 runoff initially slated for March 31 but delayed to give the state of Alabama time to get a better handle on the coronavirus pandemic.
The winner of the primary will face incumbent Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL), who defeated former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore in a special election in 2017 to fill Sessions’ old seat.
Update (5/24/2020) Sessions responds:
Shortly after the publication of this article, Sessions followed up with another response to Trump.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor