In a Friday evening tweet, President Donald Trump urged Alabamians to vote for former Auburn University head football coach Tommy Tuberville in the state’s Republican primary runoff on July 14.

Tuberville is running against Trump’s first attorney general, former U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions.

Trump endorsed Tuberville shortly after the primary election, and the president has recently ramped up his criticism of the former AG.

That continued to escalate on Friday, with Sessions responding in perhaps his most strident manner yet.

Trump tweeted, “3 years ago, after Jeff Sessions recused himself, the Fraudulent Mueller Scam began. Alabama, do not trust Jeff Sessions. He let our Country down. That’s why I endorsed Coach Tommy Tuberville… the true supporter of our #MAGA agenda!”

The president also shared a link to donate to Tuberville’s campaign, as well as a video ad released by the Tuberville campaign last week.

In a tweet responding to Trump’s latest remarks, Sessions asserted the president was “damn fortunate” that the then-attorney general recused himself.

.@realdonaldtrump Look, I know your anger, but recusal was required by law. I did my duty & you’re damn fortunate I did. It protected the rule of law & resulted in your exoneration. Your personal feelings don’t dictate who Alabama picks as their senator, the people of Alabama do. https://t.co/QQKHNAgmiE

— Jeff Sessions (@jeffsessions) May 23, 2020

An independent poll released earlier this week showed Tuberville leading Sessions by over 23 percentage points.

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn