Congressman Mo Brooks, R-Alabama, on Sunday engaged in a televised contretemps with anchor Sandra Smith on Fox News Sunday’s broadcast after Smith began questioning the congressman on the 2020 presidential election and the unsubstantiated claims of election fraud that soon followed.
Brooks, currently locked in a close run-off for U.S. Senate with frontrunner Katie Britt, began the lively exchange with Smith after the anchor questioned what political action former President Donald Trump had asked Brooks to initiate after his election defeat in 2020.
Brooks was the first sitting member of Congress to announce his planned objection to the certification of the electoral college results for the presidential race and the only Trump-endorsed candidate running for office from Alabama. Yet, the former president’s rationale in withdrawing his earlier endorsement of Brooks‘ Senate campaign in late March was that Brooks had gone “Woke” and was coerced by his newly hired staff wizards into avoiding discussions on the baseless election fraud and voting misconduct claims.
Smith brought up this fact during the interview, with the anchor adding a disclaimer that “there has been still no evidence or proof provided that there was any sort of fraud” during the 2020 election, sending the congressman round the bend.
“That’s wrong; I don’t know why you people in the media keep saying that,” Brooks said, interpreting Smith. “That is absolutely false.”
Smith began to mention “the courts and the judges that have looked into” potential fraud during the election before Brooks’ cut her off, telling the anchor: “Don’t go into that!”
“I’m getting in the last word on this one because you just made a false statement,” Brooks said before Smith finished her statement. “The courts are not the final arbiter of who wins federal election contests; Congress is.”
Smith then quoted from a Wall Street Journal article on the abrupt resignation of Wisconsin’s GOP Commissioner Dean Knudson, where Knudson said: “There’s no evidence that election fraud is the reason Trump lost Wisconsin, and that’s not for lack of looking,” before suggesting that the Republican Party “pivot away from conspiracy theories” and “focus on the issues that affect Wisconsin families and their pocketbooks.”
Brooks followed by listing out several false claims of widespread voter fraud, including a reference to the 2000 Mules documentary: A documentary by right-wing pundit and writer Dinesh D’Souza recently debunked at length by Reuters.
Smith asked if Brooks had been served with a subpoena sent by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol — commonly referred to as the Jan. 6 Committee — issued on May 13, with Brooks stating he had yet to be served with a subpoena from the “the witch hunt committee.”.
“I can say for a fact that I have no been served with any kind of documentation, and there is no subpoena until it’s been served on the person to whom it is directed,” Brooks said.
When asked if he would testify before the January 6 committee, Brooks said he would require that it be public, limited in its scope to the events of Jan. 6. and after the Senate primaries are over in Alabama.
“I don’t want this witch hunt committee, Nancy Pelosi, trying to interfere with a Republican primary election for the United States Senate in Alabama,” Brooks said.
The Senate primary run-off is scheduled for June. 21.
