Sessions, who went out on a limb when he became one of the first sitting members of Congress to endorse Trump in the GOP presidential primary, lost the president’s favor just months into his tenure as attorney general when he recused himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian election meddling.

For the next year and a half, Sessions was the subject of Trump’s scorn and mockery on social media and in public before Trump finally fired him the day after last November’s midterm elections. Sessions’ recusal not only lost Trump an ally atop the Russia investigation, something Trump never forgave him for, but his appointment as the nation’s top cop also cost Republicans a seat in the Senate when Democrat Doug Jones won the special election for Sessions’ seat.

He appeared to allude to that fact Tuesday, declaring that Republicans needed to “get their back up” after "drifting away" from GOP principles. Sessions made no mention of a return to politics, despite rumblings that he could decide to run for his old seat next year, but warned that "the stakes are high" and declared he saw an opening for Republicans to secure "a historic governing majority in the Congress for quite a number of years."

But Sessions, who has largely stayed out of the public eye since his dismissal, showed he’s comfortable enough with his exit to deliver some self-deprecating humor about the debacle.

“There was one problem as attorney general, that’s for sure, as you well know,” he told the crowd. “I like to say a lot of people get fired from their work, but mine was a little more public than most. You do the best you can. At least they don’t shoot you when they fire you.”