President Donald Trump spoke on an election eve conference call tonight with Tommy Tuberville, who carries the president’s endorsement into Tuesday’s runoff against Jeff Sessions for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.
“It’s great to be speaking with the people of Alabama, a place I love, a place where we’ve had tremendous success, where they like me, and I like them,” Trump said after an introduction by Tuberville. “Maybe love is a better word, frankly. But it’s been a great state and I love helping you. And I think one of the reasons and one of the ways that we’re going to be helping you is by recommending strongly Tommy Tuberville to be your next senator.”
The president, never shy about his admiration for the football dynasty Nick Saban has built at the University of Alabama, mentioned Tuberville’s success against the Crimson Tide as Auburn’s head coach, a run that helped bring Saban to Alabama to reverse the trend. But Trump got Saban’s first name wrong more than once on tonight’s call.
“Really successful coach,” Trump said, speaking of Tuberville. “Beat Alabama, like six in a row, but we won’t even mention that. As he said … because of that, maybe we got ‘em Lou Saban. … And he’s great, Lou Saban, what a great job he’s done.”
Trump likely mixed up Saban’s first name with longtime college and NFL coach Lou Saban, who died in 2009.
The winner of Tuesday’s runoff moves on to face Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat, in November.
Sessions is trying to recapture the seat he held for 20 years before accepting Trump’s appointment as attorney general in 2017. Sessions was the first senator to endorse Trump during the 2016 campaign and was an adviser for his campaign, but lost Trump’s support after recusing himself from the investigation into whether the Trump campaign was involved in Russian meddling in the election.
Trump repeated his familiar criticism of Sessions’ recusal decision on tonight’s call.
“I will tell you, I got to know Jeff Sessions very well,” Trump said. “I made a mistake when I put him in as the attorney general. He had his chance and he blew it. He recused himself right at the beginning, just about on day one on a ridiculous scam, the Mueller scam, the Russia, Russia, Russia scam. And Jeff didn’t have the courage to stay there. He didn’t know about Russia. He had nothing to do, but he immediately ran for the hills. “
Sessions has said he was bound by the law to recuse because he was part of Trump’s campaign. On Saturday, he answered Trump’s ridicule, calling the president’s tweets “juvenile insults.”
Sessions campaign spokesman John Rogers, asked for a comment on Trump’s call with Tuberville tonight, said: “Tommy Tuberville is on the ballot, not Donald Trump, and Tommy has a scandal-ridden past that Doug Jones would exploit to the hilt if Tommy were the Republican nominee. Jeff Sessions is completely vetted, and he is the best qualified man to fight for Alabama in the U.S. Senate. Jeff Sessions loves this state and he has the toughness, knowledge, and experience to deliver for Alabama. This election is about Alabama’s future, not who D.C. insiders are backing.”
Sessions has called on Tuberville to answer questions about fraud at an investment firm where he was a founding partner and his one-game suspension of a football player who was criminally charged for having sex with an underage girl.
Tuberville said on a talk radio program this morning that he’s been vetted through a 40-year coaching career and is the Washington outsider who can help Trump shake up the establishment.
“The swamp’s coming, they’re coming hard,” Tuberville said. “You know, I’ve run for almost 500 days now, telling people why I’m doing it, why we need an outsider, a different voice. But they’re fighting back. That’s fine. We’re going to win this.”
Trump said he expects to Tuberville to win.
“I will tell you that Tommy Tuberville is going to do a job like you haven’t seen,” Trump said. “He’s going to take over and he’s going to be representing you and representing you well. He’s going to have a cold, direct line into my office. That I can tell you.”
Related: Why the nation is watching Sessions vs. Coach.
Can Jeff Sessions roar back into Senate, or will Trump ruin an otherwise perfect political career?
Tommy Tuberville goes low profile to run out clock in runoff with Jeff Sessions
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