Former Auburn University head football coach Tommy Tuberville on Thursday rolled out a new video ad doubling down on his core campaign theme of running against “the swamp.”
The spot, which runs 30 seconds, highlights President Donald Trump’s displeasure with former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ tenure as his first appointed head of the Department of Justice.
Sessions and Tuberville are facing off in Alabama’s March 31 U.S. Senate Republican primary runoff. The seat, currently held by U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL), used to be occupied by Sessions from January 1997 — February 2017.
The Tuberville campaign advised that the new ad will soon run across social media outlets, digital platforms and television stations across the Yellowhammer State.
The spot begins with a clip of President Trump saying he would not have appointed Sessions as attorney general if he had one do-over as president.
This is followed by a graphic being displayed on the screen with another past criticism of Sessions by Trump when he said in a print interview that Sessions was a “total disaster” and “an embarrassment to the great state of Alabama.”
The ad then features Tuberville saying, “The career and establishment politicians, they have proven they can’t get it done. Let’s quit sending them up there.”
“I’m not a career politician. I’m really a politician’s worst nightmare. I want to help Donald Trump fight the swamp,” he adds.
Watch:
In a statement to Yellowhammer News, Tuberville emphasized that the spot is not just about underlining Trump’s thoughts on Sessions, but contrasting that with Sessions “running around and portraying himself as Donald Trump’s best friend” during this campaign cycle.
“Throughout this campaign, Jeff Sessions has been running around and portraying himself as Donald Trump’s best friend, but this commercial uses the president’s own words to tell some hard truths,” Tuberville remarked. “The simple fact is that Jeff Sessions abandoned Donald Trump when he needed him most, and Alabama does not need to elect a cut-and-run senator.”
Trump — at 6:31 a.m. CST the morning after the primary results showed Tuberville leading Sessions heading into the runoff — tweeted, “This is what happens to someone who loyally gets appointed Attorney General of the United States & then doesn’t have the wisdom or courage to stare down & end the phony Russia Witch Hunt. Recuses himself on FIRST DAY in office, and the Mueller Scam begins!”
The president had refrained from bashing Sessions during the primary, only commenting back in November, “He’s got tough competition.”
“I mean, you have the football coach. Tommy is doing very well. You have some good people running in Alabama. Let’s see what happens,” the president added.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
