By Samuel Mattison
Alabama Political Reporter
A new political ad released by the US Senate Candidate Mo Brooks campaign featured audio of gunshots from a baseball practice shooting in June which saw one congressman critically injured.
A gunman open-fired on congressman in Alexandria, Virginia, at a baseball practice for an annual baseball game between Congressmen. US House Whip Representative Steve Scalise was critically injured and is still in hospital now in stable condition. Brooks was present during the shooting.
“June 14: A Bernie Sanders Supporter fires on Republican Congressmen,” the ad reads. “Mo Brooks gives his belt as a tourniquet to help the wounded. What’s the liberal media immediately ask?”
The ad then goes to feature edited clips of a reporter asking Brooks if the incident changed his position on the gun control.
“The second amendment, the right to bear arms, is to help ensure that we always have a republic,” Brooks said in the ad. “So, no I’m not changing my position on any of the right we enjoy as Americans.”
The clip of Brooks was taken minutes after the shooting and featured reporters fielding him questions yards away from the baseball field where the shooting took place.
A prominent second amendment group, the National Rifle Association, endorsed Brooks’ opponent US Senator Luther Strange back in May.
TJ Tatum, a former spokesman for Scalise, said the ad was perverse and said he hoped Brooks would immediately take it down.
“That a sitting member of Congress believes this is even remotely acceptable is a sad and revealing commentary on the state of our democracy,” Tatum said.
State Senator and US Senate Candidate Trip Pittman (R-Montrose) said the ad was “disappointing” and “shocking.”
“The video represents everything that is wrong in our political culture, where common decency is lost in the pursuit of votes at the ballot box,” Pittman said. “Representative Steve Scalise and the others who were seriously wounded in the shooting are still recovering from their injuries, and I pray that they will make a full recovery.
“I will always stand for our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, but we must be careful not to sensationalize tragic events.”
The ad is a change of tone from earlier this month when Brooks defended himself against an attack ad by a pro-Strange super PAC which accused him of not supporting President Donald Trump.
The primary race is less than a month away with only 21 days left. Current polling puts Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore in the lead with Strange in second. Brooks is in third.
The general election is set for December.
