BREAKING: Ex-attorney general Jeff Sessions announces bid for Senate seat he relinquished in Alabama

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

Republican senators offered tepid support Thursday for their former colleague, Jeff Sessions, who is expected to announce plans soon to run for his old Senate seat in Alabama despite continuing tensions with President Trump.

Many GOP senators demurred when asked about Sessions, saying they didn’t involve themselves in other races’ primary contests — even for someone who served with them for years. Others voiced praise of Sessions’s previous work as a senator but also trepidation about his acrimonious relationship with Trump.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said he warned Sessions during a recent conversation about his potential candidacy that he needed to make up with Trump.

“He is a friend of mine. I’ll be doing everything I can to encourage him,” Cornyn said. “The problem, as I pointed out to him, is, ‘I think your life is going to be very difficult unless you work out some sort of reconciliation with the president.’ ”

Sessions, an early supporter of Trump’s run for president, served as Trump’s first attorney general, but fell out of favor with the president when he recused himself from overseeing the Justice Department’s Russia investigation. Their relationship never recovered and culminated with Trump unceremoniously firing him in November 2018.

Sessions will appear on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program Thursday night in his first public appearance since people familiar with his plans signaled Wednesday that he was going to run.

Trump has threatened to attack Sessions if he enters the race, telling Senate Republican leaders that he didn’t want his ally-turned-foe to run in what already promises to be a contentious primary.

The seat, which Sessions easily held for two decades before leaving for the Trump administration, is filled by a Democrat. Doug Jones won the seat from a traditionally conservative state in a special election in 2017, beating Republican Roy Moore, who faced allegations that he propositioned teenagers when he was in his 30s. Moore is running, as are Rep. Bradley Byrne and several other Republicans in the state.

Jones was asked about Sessions’s candidacy during an interview Thursday on SiriusXM’s “The Joe Madison Show.”

“Before he challenges me, he’s got about six challengers in that Republican primary that are already sniping at him. . . . It’s going to be a really divisive primary,” Jones said. “And now you’ve got somebody else jumping in there that the president of the United States has said it was the biggest mistake he’s ever made by appointing him.”

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has shared concerns that Sessions running could create a messy primary contest for a seat that Republicans say they have to win back, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the issue. Trump has repeatedly denigrated Sessions to allies and White House aides in recent days, people familiar with his comments said.

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, called Sessions a “fine man” but added that he wouldn’t endorse him in the primary.

“The whole campaign’s going to be around what President Trump said about Jeff Sessions,” Graham said. “I think Jeff knows what he’s getting into and we’ll leave it up to the voters of Alabama.”

Behind the scenes, Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) has been working to secure endorsements from Senate Republicans, according to two senators who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations, and has told other Republicans privately for weeks that if Sessions chooses to run, he would support him and aid him.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) was among the few who openly stated their support for a Sessions run. Asked whether Trump’s attacks on Sessions would hurt him given the president’s popularity in the state, Blunt said Sessions had “been pretty popular in Alabama himself.”

Others shied away from backing Sessions, instead saying they’d wait until after the primary to throw their support behind a candidate.

“I generally in primaries ­haven’t gotten involved. Not even in my state. I’d have to look at it if he ultimately makes a decision,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said. “The only thing I will say about Alabama is that I am an anyone-but-Moore supporter.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) had a similar lukewarm reaction.

“I have all I can do to keep track of me. He should do whatever he wants to do,” Cramer said. “He’s free to run if he wants to run.”

When asked whether Trump’s scorn would hurt Sessions’s chances, Cramer said, “Well, I guess I’d rather go into a Republican primary with the president’s support than without it, but Jeff Sessions is iconic and you know obviously a player right out of the chute. But I don’t know.”

Asked what Sessions could do to win back Trump’s support, Cramer replied, “Win.”