Alabama Congressmen Mo Brooks said on Wednesday that former President Donald Trump asked him to “rescind” the results of the 2020 election, remove President Joe Biden from the Oval Office, return Trump to the White House and call a special election to decide the presidency, according to a statement from his campaign.
The statement comes after former president Trump retracted a previous endorsement for Brooks, ending weeks of rumors and reports from Trump and others that Brooks would soon be dropped from his list of official endorsements.
“President 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,” Brooks said. “As a lawyer, I’ve repeatedly advised President Trump that January 6 was the final election contest verdict and neither the US Constitution nor the US Code permit what President Trump asks. Period.”
Brooks further alleges Trump was manipulated by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, in the decision to retract his endorsement while maintaining he is the most conservative candidate running on the Republican ticket for Alabama.
“There’s only one conservative option in this race, and I am confident that the people of Alabama will see that on Election Day,” Brooks said.
In another statement released Wednesday, Trump described Brooks as a leader among Republicans who objected to the 2020 presidential election results and said Mitch McConnell “has been absolutely terrible” and bad for the Republican Party.
“Mo Brooks was a leader on the 2020 Election Fraud and then, all of sudden [sic], 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,” Trump said. “The people get it, but unfortunately, Mo doesn’t–, As far as Mitch McConnell, I am not a fan and there’s been no harsher critic than me. He has been absolutely terrible, and very bad for the GOP. The sooner he leaves “Leadership,” the better off the Republican Party will be.”
In a report published by The New York Times Wednesday, Brooks said that while Trump did not give instructions on how Congress would reinstate him as president, he made the request to Brooks multiple times beginning Sept. 1, 2021.
Brooks was the first member of Congress to officially announce his intentions to object to the 2020 election results, quickly becoming a lead figure among Republicans and Trump allies waging the disinformation campaign and subsequent legal challenges to the election results over alleged voter fraud in battleground states.
On Jan. 6, while wearing body armor, Brooks addressed the crowd of Trump supporters at the Ellipse near the White House and called on the crowd to “start taking down names and kicking ass,” shortly before the mob broke into the Congressional complex and temporarily halting the certifications of the Electoral College ballots.
After a spring and summer on the campaign trail, Brooks walked back his earlier hardline stance on the election, telling a crowd at a Trump rally in Cullman last August to put the 2020 election behind them and “Look forward. Beat them in 2022. Beat them in 2024.” The comments received audible boos from the crowd.
Latest polls from the Alabama Senate race show Brooks a distant third behind fellow candidates Mike Durant and Katie Britt.
Britt met with Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago this past February. Trump reportedly referred to Durant as a “John McCain-like” candidate and was impressed by Britt’s fundraising and personality. With his removal of Brooks’ endorsement, Trump has yet to announce an official endorsement for the U.S. Senate and Alabama governor’s race.
The Republican primary is scheduled for May. 24.
