Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) was on the attack against Donald Trump again Thursday, insisting that the former president is “still” demanding that the 2020 election be “rescinded.”
It wasn’t clear if Brooks was saying he had just recently been told that yet again by Trump — or if he meant that Trump was continuing to demand that others carry out the unconstitutional action.
Trump announced Wednesday that he was withdrawing his endorsement of Brooks in his Alabama Senate race because the lawmaker had stopped calling for tossing out Joe Biden’s presidential victory. Not defying the election results made Brooks “woke,” the former president claimed in a widely mocked statement.
That’s when Brooks first said that Trump had repeatedly pushed him to somehow “rescind” the presidential election and keep him in the White House.
Brooks said Thursday on CBS affiliate WIAT-TV in Birmingham that Trump “always brings up ‘We got to rescind the election. We got to take Joe Biden out and put me in now.’”
News host Andrea Lindenberg asked: “He still says that?”
“Yes,” Brooks responded. (See the video clip up top beginning at 1:35.)
Brooks said again Thursday that he informed Trump that nothing in the law or the Constitution would allow such an action. “Mr. President, you can’t do that,” he said he told Trump.
Brooks insisted he made a choice of the Constitution over Trump.
“I knew that when I gave him straight-shooting legal advice that it would perturb him because it’s not what he wanted to hear. And I knew it would put my endorsement at risk, but I thought it was the honorable thing to do. So I did it,” Brooks said.
The position was a sharp turnaround for the ultra-conservative lawmaker and Trump backer. Just over a year ago, outfitted in bulletproof Kevlar, he told revved-up Trump backers at a “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, to “start taking down names and kicking ass” — and take their “message to the Capitol.” Soon after, Trump supporters attacked Congress.
The word “rescind” is startling. If true, it indicates Trump wasn’t interested in correcting a “rigged” election or in investigating the vote process. Rather, he simply — and as quickly as possible — wanted the results overturned so he could remain in the White House or be returned to it.
Trump was apparently also clearly made aware that such an action was illegal and unconstitutional, which addresses his possible “criminal intent,” noted Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin on Thursday.
Such information could mean that Trump’s “risk of being charged with obstruction of an official proceeding (i.e., the electoral-vote-counting session), attempting to defraud the United States or seditious conspiracy increases dramatically,” she added.
Brooks is trailing his Senate primary opponents Katie Britt and Mike Durant, according to a recent poll. They are vying to replace retiring Republican Sen. Richard Shelby.