Rep. Brooks offers to drop out of Alabama Senate race to clear way for Sessions

Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, who is in danger of missing a GOP primary runoff in Alabama's Senate race, has offered to drop out of the contest to make way for under-fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reclaim his old seat in Congress' upper chamber.

Brooks' proposal would involve all nine candidates in the race, including Sen. Luther Strange and former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, dropping out of the contest. The Alabama GOP would then be able to appoint Sessions as their nominee and run him in the general election.


President Donald Trump has become intensely critical of Sessions in recent days, with the attorney general — one of Trump's closest allies throughout the 2016 campaign and an ideological ally of Trump adviser Steve Bannon — refusing to step aside. Trump has suggested it was wrong for Sessions to recuse himself from the FBI's investigation into Russian meddling in the election and asked why Sessions isn't investigating alleged wrongdoing by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

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"I support President Trump's policies, but this public waterboarding of one of the greatest people Alabama has ever produced is inappropriate and insulting to the people of Alabama who know Jeff Sessions so well and elected him so often by overwhelming margins," Brooks wrote in a statement e-mailed to reporters on Wednesday.

Brooks goes on to propose all the candidates drop out of the contest simultaneously so Sessions "can return to the Senate where he has served us so well. President can then appoint whomever he wants as Attorney General."

Recent public polling has placed Brooks, who has been the subject of millions of dollars in attack ads from a super PAC controlled by allies Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in third place heading towards the Aug. 15 runoff. The ads have portrayed him as insufficiently supportive of Trump.

The offer, which Strange and the other candidates are almost certain to reject, appears to be an attempt for Brooks to tie himself closely to Sessions, who remains enormously popular in Alabama, winning 97 percent of the vote in his 2014 reelection bid.

"I recognize that President Trump is popular in Alabama," Brooks writes at the close of his statement. "My closest friends and political advisers have told me to not side with Jeff Sessions, that it will cost me politically to do so. My response is simple: I don't care. If this costs me politically, that's fine but I am going to the right thing for Alabama and America. I stand with Jeff Sessions."