President Trump partly blamed Attorney General Jeff Sessions for the GOP loss in the recent Alabama Senate election, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Trump placed blame on Sessions for Republicans losing the seat because Sessions’s departure from the Senate seat to Trump’s Cabinet had caused the special election, according to the AP.
{mosads}Trump had nominated Sessions for the position, setting off the process. Sen.-elect Doug Jones (D-Ala.) defeated Roy Moore (R) in the election earlier this month.
The president first endorsed Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala) in the race before Moore won the GOP primary. Trump also backed Moore, despite the candidate facing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls.
Trump tried to walk back his support for Moore in a tweet last week, saying he had known Moore “would lose” the race.
The president has also targeted Sessions on social media and in comments to the press, largely expressing disappointment with Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Russia’s election interference.
Trump said in July that he would not have appointed Sessions as attorney general if he had known that Sessions would recuse himself from the probe.
Sessions has said that Trump’s attacks on him were “hurtful” but that he will remain in his role.
Trump has also stepped up his attacks on the FBI in recent weeks, which falls under Sessions’s purview in the Department of Justice.