Alabama Republican Senate candidate Rep. Mo Brooks responded to former President Donald Trump walking back his endorsement by blaming the Senate GOP leader and standing by his 2020 election stance.
Brooks, an Alabama Republican congressman, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had manipulated Trump by running negative ads and that Trump “[fell] for McConnell’s ploys.” Brooks fell from Trump’s graces after saying that Republicans need to focus on future elections instead of obsessing over the 2020 election, which Trump says he rightfully won.
TRUMP PULLS ENDORSEMENT OF MO BROOKS IN ALABAMA SENATE RACE
“I have not changed. I am the only proven America First candidate in this Senate race,” Brooks said in a statement Wednesday. “I am the only candidate who fought voter fraud and election theft when it counted, between November 3 and January 6. I repeat what has prompted President Trump’s ire. The only legal way America can prevent 2020’s election debacle is for patriotic Americans to focus on and win the 2022 and 2024 elections so that we have the power to enact laws that give us honest and accurate elections.”
Trump responded to Brooks later Wednesday evening, denying any influence from McConnell.
“The people of Alabama dropped him, and now I have done so also. The people get it, but unfortunately, Mo doesn’t,” Trump said in a statement. “As far as Mitch McConnell, I am not a fan and there’s been no harsher critic than me. He has been absolutely terrible, and very bad for the GOP. The sooner he leaves ‘Leadership,’ the better off the Republican Party will be.”
Brooks’s statement continued that Trump’s demands that he somehow help declare the 2020 election invalid, remove President Joe Biden from office, and hold a special presidential election are impossible under U.S. law, “period.”
“I’ve told President Trump the truth knowing full well that it might cause President Trump to rescind his endorsement,” Brooks’s statement continued. “But I took a sworn oath to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution. I honor my oath. That is the way I am. I break my sworn oath for no man.”
Recent polling showed Brooks falling into third place, which may also be a factor in Trump pulling his endorsement. The primary was viewed as a test of Trump’s continued hold over the party.
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Trump released an initial scathing statement Wednesday morning withdrawing his support of Brooks, who has plunged in polls ahead of the May 24 GOP primary. The former president accused him of “going woke” and thus losing the support of Alabama constituents due to his calls to look to future elections instead of promising to investigate and prosecute the 2020 election.
Trump will likely shift his support to Katie Britt or Mike Durant, the two other front-running GOP candidates. Brooks accused Britt of being”supported and funded by McConnell allies, and she’s still a high taxing, open borders, cheap foreign labor, Chamber of Commerce lobbyist,” showing the intraparty divide.
