Sessions accepts ‘Fox News Sunday’ invitation to debate, Tuberville declines

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions has accepted an invitation from “Fox News Sunday” to a virtual primary debate, but his opponent, former Auburn football head coach Tommy Tuberville, has declined, a source close to the show told The Hill.

The program, anchored by Chris Wallace, has given the Tuberville campaign until Wednesday to accept the invitation, also according to the source.

The Hill has reached out to the Tuberville campaign for comment.

Tuberville, who is backed by President Trump in the primary, has resisted debating Sessions in any format to this point.

In March, a planned debate hosted by CBS-affiliated WKRG in Mobile, Ala., and four other Nexstar Broadcasting sister stations in Alabama had scheduled a debate between the two candidates, with Tuberville ultimately deciding not to participate.

Tuberville won the 33.4 percent of the vote to Sessions’s 31.7 percent in the first round on March 3, forcing a runoff that was pushed back to July 14 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump, who won the state by 27 points over Hillary Clinton in 2016, has been highly critical of Sessions since he recused himself in the Russia investigation, which eventually led to the appointment of former special counsel Robert Mueller.

An independent poll from Cygnal in May showed Tuberville leading Sessions, 55 percent to 32 percent.