Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks hit back at Donald Trump after the former president withdrew his endorsement, saying on Wednesday that only a brain on a pea would believe he was a “wake-up liberal.”
Brooks said Trump, more focused than ever on his 2020 election loss, has repeatedly asked the Alabama Republican to “cancel” the presidential election results and “remove” President Biden from office. Brooks said that since September 2021, he has “sporadically responded to requests from the former president.”
“The word he used was cancel,” he said. “We didn’t go into details because it’s impossible by law. And I explained it pretty quickly.
Brooks, a longtime defender of the former president’s election fraud allegations, said he did not receive a courtesy call until Trump withdrew his support.
“I told President Trump the truth, knowing full well that it could result in President Trump revoking his approval,” Brooks said in an earlier statement.
“When the president calls me ‘woke up’, there’s no one in Alabama with a brain the size of a pea who thinks Moe Brooks is a woke liberal.” Brooks added.
On Wednesday, Trump bounced back by backing Brooks, who is vying for an open seat in the Alabama Senate after the Republican suggested the country drop the 2020 race.
“Mo Brooks of Alabama recently made a terrible mistake when he ‘woke up’ and said in reference to the 2020 presidential election scam, ‘Leave this behind, leave this behind,’ despite the fact that the election was rife with fraud and irregularities,” Trump said.
Trump said Brooks lost “a 44-point lead” after he hired new campaign staff who “brilliantly” told him to “stop talking about the 2020 election.”
Former President Donald Trump (R) spoke out Wednesday, endorsing Rep. Mo Brooks (L), who is running for an open seat in the Alabama Senate after the Republican suggested the country drop the 2020 race during a Trump rally in August (on a photo)
Brooks said Trump made the decision because he was manipulated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“He listened to them,” Trump said. “Then, according to the polls, Moe’s 44-point lead completely evaporated based on his 2020 statement made at our mass rally in Cullman, Alabama.”
In August, Brooks advised rallies to “leave 2020 behind us,” as Trump said, and was criticized by the crowd who yelled “no” and booed.
“Look ahead, look ahead, look ahead. Defeat them in 2022, defeat them in 2024,” he shouted over the noise. “Okay, we’ll look back on this, but go ahead and take advantage of this. We have to win in 2022, we have to win in 2024, that’s what we have to do.”
The crowd seemed to be back on Brooks’ side when he asked if they would help the Trump and MAGA candidates “take our country back.”
“When I heard his statement, I said, ‘Mo, you just failed the election and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ Very sad, but since he has decided to go in a different direction, so do I, and hereby withdraw my approval of Mo Brooks for the Senate,” Trump said Wednesday.
“I don’t think the great people of Alabama would disagree with me. Election fraud must be caught and stopped, otherwise we will no longer have a country, ”continued the ex-president. “In the near future, I will make a new endorsement!” he said.
Trump returned to find out more Wednesday night, writing in a statement: “Moe Brooks was the 2020 Election Fraud Leader, and then all of a sudden, during a big rally in Alabama, he ‘woke up’ and decided to drop everything he stood for.” . for… when he did, the people of Alabama abandoned him, and now I have done the same. People understand that, but unfortunately Mo doesn’t.”
The internal party war has pitted Trump against Brooks and Brooks against Trump, and both against Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell.
In a statement sent out by Brooks on Wednesday, he criticized Trump for being manipulated by McConnell, R-Ky.
“I wish President Trump didn’t fall for McConnell’s tricks, but he did again,” Brooks said.
Trump responded in his evening statement: “Regarding Mitch McConnell, I am not a fan and there has never been a harsher critic than me. He was absolutely terrible and very bad for the Republican Party. The sooner he leaves the “leadership”, the better it will be for the Republican Party.”
Less than two days ago, Brooks linked himself with Trump and against the GOP leader. “This race is about Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda against Mitch McConnell and the agenda bought and paid for by special interests. It’s time for the conservatives to pick a side. It’s time to fire Mitch McConnell,” he tweeted on Monday.
“Mitch McConnell enjoys fighting Trump more than Biden. He hates Trump, he hates Trump-backed candidates, and he hates the MAGA agenda,” he tweeted.
Brooks had hoped to fill the Senate seat vacated by outgoing Republican Senator Richard Shelby, but Shelby is already financially backing one of Brook’s GOP rivals, 40-year-old Cathy Britt, a former Shelby aide.
It wasn’t clear where Trump got the 44 from, but Brooks and Britt were leading in two dueling polls last month.
A Club for Growth poll by WPA Intelligence found that 35 percent of GOP voters wanted Brooks to win the primary. Britt received 25 percent of the shares, coming in third behind another candidate, Mike Durant.
Club for Growth supports Brooks.
However, Britt’s internal campaign poll showed that she won with 29 percent of the vote, while Brooks had 28 percent and Durant 23 percent.
In a Gray Tv/Alabama Daily News poll released Tuesday, Durant came in first.
He received 34.6% support from Alabama Republicans, followed by Britt at 28.4%.
Brooks finished third with 16.1%.
Trump met with Britt in February, sparking speculation that he has buyer stings over his Brooks endorsement he handed out last year, according to the Politico Playbook.
According to Yellowhammer News, Britt said she would be “delighted” to have the former commander in chief’s approval.
Brooks said that Britt “was funded by McConnell’s allies, and she still demands high taxes, open borders, cheap foreign labor and a Chamber of Commerce lobbyist.”
Duran met with Trump earlier this week.
The Playbook says Trump was particularly annoyed that Brooks was seeking the approval of former Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, who was also Trump’s first attorney general.
Rep. Moe Brooks was one of the closest members of Congress to Trump. He spoke at a January 6 “Save America” rally on an ellipse that occurred in front of a MAGA crowd storming the US Capitol.
Trump and Sessions fell out after Sessions decided to withdraw from an FBI investigation into Russia that looked into interference in the 2016 election and links to the Trump campaign.
Sessions #2, Rod Rosenstein, has decided to appoint Special Counsel Robert Mueller to take over the investigation.
Brooks has been a prominent supporter of Trump in the US Congress.
He appeared at the infamous “Save America” rally, which took place on the morning of January 6 before the MAGA mob stormed the US Capitol.
Brooks was such a supporter of Trump that he said he would be “proud” if one of his employees helped plan the rally that took place before the attack, according to The Washington Post.
“Honestly, I would be proud of them if they helped organize a First Amendment rally to protest vote rigging and election theft,” Brooks said in October.