The twice impeached Donald Trump pulled his U.S. Senate endorsement of Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., describing him as “woke” and slamming the candidate for telling voters to look past Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
“When I endorsed Mo Brooks, he took a 44-point lead and was unstoppable. He then hired a new campaign staff who ‘brilliantly’ convinced him to ‘stop talking about the 2020 Election,’” Trump said in a statement on Wednesday. “He listened to them.”
Trump claimed that “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. When I heard his statement, I said, ‘Mo, you just blew the Election, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’”
Trump said he has now “decided to go in another direction” — with plans to endorse another candidate “in the near future” — and rescinded his endorsement of Brooks, who has leaned heavily on his connection to and backing from Trump. The Senate hopeful has proudly displayed Trump’s endorsement on campaign signs, calling himself “MAGA Mo,” and touted that he had Trump’s support by changing his Twitter name to show he had received the endorsement: “Mo Brooks – Endorsed By President Trump.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Brooks responded by blaming the rescinded support on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, claiming that Trump let McConnell “manipulate him again.”
“Every single negative TV ad against our campaign has come from McConnell and his allies,” he said. “I wish President Trump wouldn’t fall for McConnell’s ploys, but, once again, he has.
“I have not changed. I am the only proven America First candidate in this Senate race,” he said, adding he’s “the only candidate who fought voter fraud and election theft when it counted, between November 3 and January 6.”
Brooks went on to allege that Trump “asked me 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.” He said that as a lawyer, he told Trump that the election results would not be changed after Jan. 6.
“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 said.
Brooks has at times backed Trump’s untrue claims that widespread voter fraud marred the 2020 election results, but he apparently crossed the line with Trump at an August 2021 rally in Alabama. The crowd booed Brooks after he said: “There are some people who are despondent about the voter fraud and election theft of 2020. Folks, put that behind you. Yes, look forward!”
A primary battle has been brewing in Alabama to fill the seat of Sen. Richard Shelby, a Republican who announced last year that he would not be seeking reelection. Among those vying for the position are Katie Britt, who used to work for Shelby as his chief of staff, and Mike Durant, a businessman who was the U.S. Army helicopter pilot who was shot down and held prisoner in the “Black Hawk Down” incident in Somalia in 1993.
Last week, Trump revealed he wasn’t happy with Brooks’s performance, telling the Washington Examiner: “It’s a very tight race between the three of them right now, and I’m not particularly happy.”
Trump reportedly met with Britt in February at his Mar-a-Lago resort before making the decision to pull his support for Brooks, who has served in Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District since 2011.
In response, Brooks said of the meeting: “This is the second time that Katie Britt has tried to get support from Donald Trump and has failed both times. The president has assured me this week that he is all in for Mo Brooks.”
The Alabama Senate primary will be held on May 24.
