Jeff Sessions kisses up to Trump while announcing Senate bid

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions left the Trump administration due to friction with the president, but that's all in the past — at least for one of them.

On Thursday night, Sessions announced he is running for his old Senate seat in Alabama. He served from 1997 to 2017 and was the first senator to endorse President Trump's candidacy in 2016. While serving as attorney general, Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, a move that enraged Trump and was the beginning of his downfall. Last year, at the request of Trump, Sessions resigned.

During his announcement, Sessions praised Trump, admitting that while they had their "ups and downs," Trump is "doing great work for America. When President Trump took on Washington, only one senator out of 100 had the courage to stand with him: me. I was the first to support President Trump. I was his strongest advocate. I still am. We must make America great again."

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Trump is less than enthused that Sessions is running for Senate, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post on Wednesday. Trump has already called selecting Sessions as his first attorney general the "biggest mistake" of his presidency, and said the way he ran the Justice Department was "a total joke." Trump has spoken with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) about ways he can attack Sessions, the Post reports, and has spent the last few days bad-mouthing his former AG to White House aides.