President Trump downplays Jeff Sessions' early support: It's not 'a great loyal thing'

Jeff Sessions may have been one of Donald Trump's earliest supporters, but the president wondered how important that was in a Tuesday interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Sessions delivered his endorsement of Trump in February 2016 at an Alabama rally. It was seen at the time as a blow to another Republican senator, Ted Cruz of Texas. 

On Tuesday, Trump told the Wall Street Journal:

When they say he endorsed me, I went to Alabama. I had 40,000 people. He was a senator from Alabama. I won the state by a lot, massive numbers. A lot of the states I won by massive numbers. But he was a senator, he looks at 40,000 people and he probably says, ’What do I have to lose?’ And he endorsed me. So it’s not like a great loyal thing about the endorsement. But I’m very disappointed in Jeff Sessions.

Sessions' loyalty to candidate Donald Trump eventually led to Sessions becoming attorney general. But that relationship has soured in the months since Sessions recused himself from the ongoing investigation into Russia meddling in the 2016 election. In the past week, Trump has gone public with his criticisms of the attorney general.

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