The breakup between former President Donald Trump and Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks is getting ugly.
On Wednesday, Trump rescinded his endorsement of Brooks, who is running for an open U.S. senate seat in Alabama. Trump was peeved that Brooks had expressed a desire to move on from claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Later in the day, Brooks fired back at Trump, saying in a statement that the twice impeached president asked him to illegally “rescind” the results of the 2020 election, boot Joe Biden from the White House, re-install Trump, and force a special election.
“As a lawyer,” Brooks wrote “I’ve repeatedly advised President Trump that Jan. 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 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.”
The New York Times reports:
In a subsequent text message [to The Times], Mr. Brooks said Mr. Trump had made the request of him on “multiple occasions” since Sept. 1, 2021. He said the former president did not specify how exactly Congress would reinstall him as president, and Mr. Brooks repeatedly told him it was impossible.
“I told President Trump that ‘rescinding’ the 2020 election was not a legal option. Period,” Mr. Brooks wrote.
Mr. Brooks said Mr. Trump brought up the matter to him repeatedly over the past six months. He said he had initially hoped the requests were not connected to his endorsement in the Senate race, but now believes that Mr. Trump was dangling public support of Mr. Brooks’s candidacy as leverage to try to get a new election.
“I hoped not but you’ve seen what happened today,” Mr. Brooks said in a text. “For emphasis, the conversations about Jan. 6, 2021 being the only 2020 remedy have been going off and on for 6+ months.”
Brooks and Trump were fierce allies during Trump’s presidency. Stephen Miller, a Trump whisperer, once said “Nobody over the last four years has had President Trump’s back more than Mo Brooks.” Brooks amplified Trump’s many lies about fraud in the 2020 election and he spoke at the pro-Trump rally that proceeded the Capitol riot. Wearing body armor, Brooks asked the crowd, “Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America?”
Brooks’ loyalty was rewarded with a Trump endorsement. So central was that stamp of approval from Trump, that Brooks integrated it into his campaign logo and included it in his Twitter name. Yet his campaign failed to gain traction and was unable to fundraise at the same clip as his opponents.
Brooks’ lackluster campaign clearly irked Trump, who doesn’t like being associated with losers. Brooks also provoked Trump’s ire when he told a rally, “There are some people who are despondent about the voter fraud and election theft in 2020. Folks, put that behind you, put that behind you.”
In rescinding his endorsement, Trump said the “put that behind you” remarks were proof that Brooks had gone “woke.”
The Times adds:
Mr. Brooks’s high-profile break with Mr. Trump raised the possibility that he might cooperate with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, providing information the panel has so far been unable to secure about what Mr. Trump told his allies in Congress before, during and after the riot. Other Republicans involved in the effort to overturn the 2020 election — Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania — have refused requests from the panel for interviews.
Writing in The Washington Post, columnist Jennifer Rubin muses, “Trump might come to regret pulling the rug out from under Brooks. Sometimes you want to keep friends close — and potentially dangerous witnesses closer.”
