Jeff Sessions Fires Back at Trump's Support of Rival in Alabama Senate Race, Calls Criticism 'Juvenile Insults'

Former Attorney General and current Alabama Senate candidate Jeff Sessions shot back at President Donald Trump's endorsement of his opponent Tommy Tuberville, calling the president's criticisms of him "juvenile insults."

In a tweet Saturday, Trump called on followers and his supporters to vote for former college football coach Tuberville for the Alabama Senate primary runoff. The president wrote that Sessions was a "disaster who has let us all down." He added that he doesn't want to see him in Washington again.

Sessions responded to the president's tweet by saying that he was above the insults hurled by Trump. Despite putting down Trump for the endorsement, Sessions did hurl a few quips at Tuberville in his own tweet.

"I've taken the road less travelled. Not sought fame or fortune. My honor and integrity are far more important than these juvenile insults. Your scandal ridden candidate is too cowardly to debate. As you know, Alabama does not take orders from Washington," he wrote.

Prior to becoming U.S. attorney general, Sessions had held the Senate seat for two decades. The schism between Sessions and Trump goes back to when the then-attorney general recused himself from the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

It's unclear what scandal Sessions was alluding to in his tweet. According to ESPN, Tuberville was sued in 2012 for defrauding investors due to his hedge fund TS Capital Management, which was co-founded with John David Stroud. The plaintiffs in the case said that Tuberville, Stroud and other investment entities "unjustly enriched themselves" at the investors' expense. Tuberville's attorney at the time denied that the coach had done any wrong. The former coach reportedly settled the lawsuit in 2013. Sessions in recent days called on his rival to answer questions about the case.

Despite Sessions' negative response to the tweet, his opponent thanked Trump for his endorsement and vowed to defeat both Sessions and Democratic Senator Doug Jones. "Thank you @realdonaldtrump! Together we are going to fire @JeffSessions once and for all and send @DougJones packing," Tuberville wrote.

The two candidates will face off in Alabama's GOP primary runoff on Tuesday. The winner will become the nominee to challenge incumbent Jones.

Newsweek reached out to the Sessions and Tuberville campaigns for comment by email, but did not receive a response in time for publication. The White House did not provide an on-the-record response to Newsweek's request for comment.

This isn't the first time that Trump has spoken out against his former attorney general's Senate run. As previously reported, Trump called on Sessions to drop out of the race in May. "You should drop out of the race & pray that super liberal @DougJones, a weak & pathetic puppet for Crazy Nancy Pelosi & Cryin' Chuck Schumer, gets beaten badly," he wrote in a tweet.