Editor’s Note: Douglas Heye is the ex-deputy chief of staff to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a GOP strategist and a CNN political commentator. Follow him on Twitter @dougheye. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.
It was late February of 2016, which now seems like generations ago, when Jeff Sessions was the first United States senator to endorse then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. The move caught many by surprise. Trump was not a serious candidate, the conventional wisdom held, so why would an experienced senator like Jeff Sessions back him? Led by his strongly held views on immigration, which aligned with Trump’s, Sessions boarded the Trump train at its first stop and rode it all the way to the top job at the Department of Justice.
Then, in 2017, Sessions did the right thing against the President’s wishes when he recused himself from the Justice Department’s investigation of foreign influence into the Trump campaign. Of course, he did. It’s what an honorable public official does. As Sessions noted, “I did what the law required me to do. I was a central figure in the campaign and was also a subject of and witness in the investigation and could obviously not legally be involved in investigating myself.”
But in the aftermath of his recusal, Jeff Sessions was nonetheless punished by Trump – in verbal attacks and removal from his role as Attorney General – for simply doing what his job required of him. So, when he ran to be the Republican candidate to take on Democrat Doug Jones for his old Senate seat in Alabama, perhaps Sessions expected that Trump would support his opponent, former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville. Sessions was not in a political position of strength, and the President took every opportunity he could to go after his former top backer, whose sin was acting ethically.
Republicans should view Sessions’ loss as a cautionary tale. As the November election draws closer, the actions of GOP elected officials will be scrutinized. Republican politicians have been frequently asked if and when they will speak out against Trump’s behavior. That many of them, particularly those from red states, haven’t yet says much about the current state of the Republican Party. The ballad of Jeff Sessions could explain their reluctance.
