Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) accused former President Donald Trump on Wednesday of pushing for the removal of President Biden from office and a “subsequent election” for the presidency after the 45th president withdrew his endorsement of Brooks in Alabama’s US Senate race.
In a morning statement announcing his decision, Trump accused Brooks of turning “woke” by encouraging voters to move on from Trump’s claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
That led Brooks, in an extraordinary scorched-earth response, to accuse Trump of asking him to “rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency.”
“As a lawyer,” Brooks said, “I’ve repeatedly advised President Trump that January 6 was the final election contest verdict and neither the U.S. Constitution nor the U.S. Code permit what President Trump asks. Period.
“I’ve told President Trump the truth knowing full well that it might cause President Trump to rescind his endorsement,” he went on. “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.”
Brooks doubled down in an interview with NBC News Wednesday afternoon, insisting that Trump wanted Brooks to help illegally “rescind” the result of the 2020 election and remove Biden from office.
“We never got that far because I explained to the president that what he asked is legally impossible and violates the United States Constitution,” said Brooks, who added that Trump had “mentioned having a subsequent election for the presidency” as recently as this past fall.
In a second statement, Trump did not deny Brooks’ claims, but only said: “Mo Brooks was a leader on the 2020 Election Fraud and then, all of sudden, during the big rally in Alabama, he went ‘woke’ and decided to drop everything he stood for—when he did, the people of Alabama dropped him, and now I have done so also. The people get it, but unfortunately, Mo doesn’t.”
In his initial statement, rescinding the endorsement, the former president cited remarks by Brooks at a rally in Alabama last August in which the congressman encouraged the crowd to move past the 2020 election results and “look forward.”
“There are some people who are despondent about the voter fraud and election theft in 2020,” Brooks said amid boos. “Folks, put that behind you, put that behind you.”
Trump claimed Brooks was “unstoppable” when he endorsed him last spring, noting that one poll from the fall of 2021 showed Brooks with a “44-point lead” over his nearest competitor.
“He then hired a new campaign staff who ‘brilliantly’ convinced him to ‘stop talking about the 2020 Election.’ He listened to them. Then, according to the polls, Mo’s 44-point lead totally evaporated all based on his ‘2020’ statement made at our massive rally in Cullman, Alabama,” the former president said.
“When I heard his statement, I said, ‘Mo, you just blew the Election, and there’s nothing you can do about it,’” he continued. “Very sad but, since he decided to go in another direction, so have I, and I am hereby withdrawing my Endorsement of Mo Brooks for the Senate. I don’t think the great people of Alabama will disagree with me. Election Fraud must be captured and stopped, or we won’t have a Country anymore.”
Trump closed the statement with a promise that he would be announcing a new endorsement “in the near future!”
Brooks was being challenged in the Republican primary by Mike Durant, a former Army helicopter pilot who was shot down in Somalia in 1993 during the “Black Hawk Down” incident, and Katie Britt, a former business association president and one-time aide to Shelby. Recent polling showed Durant narrowly ahead of Britt, with Brooks a distant third.
The primary is scheduled for May 24, with a runoff set for June 21 if neither of the top two candidates garners at least 50% of the vote.
