Before Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., on Wednesday retaliated against former President Donald Trump for yanking his endorsement in the state's crowded U.S. Senate primary.
Brooks had been one of Trump's more stalwart supporters in Congress, rarely missing a chance to be seen backing Trump or attacking Trump's foes.
Brooks said he was blindsided after learning that Trump was withdrawing his endorsement in the Republican Senate primary when he was sent a reporter's tweet, Politico reported.
Brooks reacted by going scorched earth, contending he drew Trump's "ire" after he informed the former president that his plan to hold a new presidential election wasn't legal.
Brooks, in a fiery statement of his own, alleged that Trump asked him to help "rescind" the 2020 elections results, "remove" President Joe Biden from his post, "immediately put Trump back in the White House," and hold a new special presidential election.
But while Brooks has recently stated a desire to move on from Trump's persistent complaints about the 2020 election, he hasn't always been so vehemently opposed to Trump's focus on the 2020 vote.
Brooks was also among the members of Congress who voted against certifying the results of Biden's win in several states.
Here are some things Brooks said about Trump before the pulled endorsement.
Trump 'Such a Success'
After a congressional event in October 2019, Brooks marveled at Trump's ability to captivate a room.
"You can see why he was such a success with his apprenticeship program on TV and why he was able to come virtually out of nowhere and surprise so many people and get elected president of the United States," he said.
Brooks also praised Trump as being "very informative, very entertaining, very funny at times, very engaging."
Praising Trump on Twitter
Brooks frequently turned to social media to praise the president for his accomplishments abroad and at home.
"Never forget that President Donald J. Trump brought peace to the Middle East," he tweeted on Aug. 14, 2021, as conflict erupted between Palestinians and Israelis.
When Trump filed a lawsuit against Big Tech companies, including Facebook and Google in July 2021 over their purported censorship of conservative viewpoints, Brooks was cheering him on.
"I applaud President Trump for standing up to the Silicon Valley cartel," Brooks tweeted. "Big Tech has way too much power! They cannot get away with censoring conservative voices any longer!"
Brooks Backed Trump on Voter Fraud
Just days after the 2020 election, Brooks urged Trump and Republicans to "fight Biden's unlawful victory claims" on Twitter.
In discussing his plans to challenge the Electoral College votes, Brooks told The Hill in December 2020 that he was doing so because the 2020 election had the "worst election theft in the history of the United States. And if there was a way to determine the Electoral College outcome using only lawful votes cast by eligible American citizens, then Donald Trump won the Electoral College."
During an April 13, 2021, appearance on Newsmax's "Stinchfield," Brooks said the "election system has so many systemic flaws that were manipulated to end up with deleterious consequences."
When asked if he agreed with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's assessment that there were no problems with the 2020 election, Brooks told The Federalist that he didn't agree.
"President Trump is right about the 2020 election. Mitch McConnell is wrong," Brooks told the outlet in January 2022.
"That's why I stood with Donald Trump when it mattered most, between Nov. 3 and Jan. 6, while McConnell and the Washington establishment were abandoning him — and I'm still standing with him," Brooks said. "McConnell's refusal to say what grassroots conservatives across America know and speak the truth about 2020, coupled with his being the most unpopular elected official in Washington, combine to persuade me that Republicans must find a better Senate GOP leader."
In a new campaign ad, he highlighted how he stood by the president's side following the 2020 contest.
"On Jan. 6 I proudly stood with President Trump in the fight against voter fraud," Brooks says in the ad. "I'm running for the Senate because I'm tired of debt junkie, weak-kneed open-border RINOs who sell out our conservative values. That's why President Trump endorses me and why [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell opposes us."
Trump Puts America First
"President Trump is right, America must lead by putting America's national interest first. The Paris climate accord did not do that," he said on the House floor in 2017. "I am proud that President Trump puts America first."
Biggest Supporter
"Folks, you're looking at the guy who has supported Donald Trump more so, with his agenda in the United States Congress, than any other candidate in this race," Brooks said in 2017.
After receiving Trump's endorsement for his Senate race last year, Brooks told Newsmax's "National Report" in April 2021 that he was "very much humbled by President Trump's support."
He called Alabama a MAGA state and said having Trump's support was "huge" and "signals to the people of Alabama that I am the MAGA candidate, and I have the record that can prove it. And that's something nobody else has."
Backed the Border Wall
"I fought with President Trump for the Make America Great Again agenda and for the wall on our southern border," Brooks said during his Senate campaign kickoff.
In an August campaign ad, Brooks said, "America is nothing if it has no borders." He promised to "continue to fight to protect our southern border and finish what President Trump started!"
Recent polling indicated that Brooks slipped to third behind GOP opponents Katie Britt, the former head of a state business group and former chief of staff to Sen. Richard Shelby, and Mike Durant, a helicopter pilot shot down and held prisoner in the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" debacle in Somalia.
As he slipped, Brooks suddenly went from espousing Trump's views of the 2020 election to encouraging voters to look to the future.
Trump accused Brooks of going "woke" and making a "horrible mistake" by telling attendees at a summer rally to move on from the election.
"Mo Brooks was a leader on the 2020 Election Fraud and then, all of sudden, 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 in a statement. "The people get it, but unfortunately, Mo doesn't."
After losing Trump's endorsement, Brooks has sought to cast himself as the honorable party and shift negative opinion toward Trump.
In a lengthy statement, he claimed he told 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."
He said he told Trump "the truth knowing full well that it might cause President Trump to rescind his endorsement."
"But I took a sworn oath to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution," Brooks continued. "I honor my oath. That is the way I am. I break my sworn oath for no man."
In parting with Trump, he maintained that the "only legal way America can prevent 2020's election debacle is for patriotic Americans to focus on and win the 2022 and 2024 elections so that we have the power to enact laws that give us honest and accurate elections."
via newsmax