Trump pulls endorsement of fading Rep. Mo Brooks in Alabama Senate race

Former President Donald Trump withdrew his endorsement of Republican Rep. Mo Brooks in Alabama’s hotly contested Senate race on Wednesday, slamming the lawmaker for calling on voters to move on from the 2020 presidential election that Mr. Trump lost. 

“Mo Brooks of Alabama made a horrible mistake recently when he went ’woke’ and stated, referring to the 2020 Presidential Election Scam, ’Put that behind you, put that behind you,’ despite the fact that the Election was rife with fraud and irregularities,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.

The former president said of Mr. Brooks, “Very sad but, since he decided to go in another direction, so have I, and I am hereby withdrawing my Endorsement of Mo Brooks for the Senate.”

Mr. Trump, who easily carried the state in the 2020 presidential election, said he will announce a new choice in the GOP Senate primary soon.

Mr. Brooks made the comment at a Trump rally in Alabama last August, and was roundly booed by the crowd at the time.

“Look forward,” he said. “We’ve got to win in 2022.”

But reviving the comment now gives Mr. Trump the opportunity to bail on Mr. Brooks, who is trailing two other GOP candidates in the Senate primary to replace the retiring Republican Sen. Richard Shelby. A Gray Tv/Alabama Daily News poll this week showed Mr. Brooks a distant third behind businessman Mike Durant and former Shelby Chief of Staff Katie Britt.

Mr. Brooks has been an ardent Trump supporter, and was a featured speaker at the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, hours before a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Mr. Trump said Mr. Brooks’ Senate campaign was “unstoppable” until “he hired a new campaign staff who ’brilliantly’ convinced him to ’stop talking about the 2020 Election.’”

“He listened to them. Then, according to the polls, Mo’s 44-point lead totally evaporated all based on his ’2020’ statement made at our massive rally in Cullman, Alabama,” Mr. Trump said. “When I heard his statement, I said, ’Mo, you just blew the Election, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’  I don’t think the great people of Alabama will disagree with me.”

The former president said election fraud “must be captured and stopped, or we won’t have a Country anymore.”