Mo Brooks’ wild roller coaster ride appears to have come to an end. As The Daily Beast reports, the Alabama congressman’s dreams of becoming an Alabama Senator have been dashed when he was pretty easily defeated by Katie Boyd Britt in a runoff election on Tuesday night. The two were fighting for the seat of Richard Shelby, who announced his plans to retire in early 2021; he has served the state for 35 years.
In October 2021, Rolling Stone dropped a political bombshell when it reported that participants in the January 6 Capitol riots claimed to have had “dozens” of meetings with members of Congress and Trump White House staffers ahead of their deadly insurrection. Brooks, who spoke at the Ellipsis rally the morning of January 6 (and wore body armor), was among the Congress members cited as taking part in these meetings—a charge he vehemently denied. The further Brooks attempted to distance himself from the events of that day, the more blame he placed on both his staff and Trump himself.
When it became clear that Brooks wasn’t about to sacrifice himself at the altar of Trump, and that the congressman could end up becoming a “star witness” for the January 6th committee, Trump took the unprecedented step of rescinding his endorsement of Brooks for going “woke” by claiming that Trump could not be legally reinstated as president.
As The Daily Beast writes, Brooks’ beef with Trump “seemed to enliven Brooks’ fading campaign. Armed with an ax to grind, Brooks surged in the polls. He began hitting Trump, and hard, needling him for his focus on the 2020 election by repeating his belief, anathema to the ex-president, that Republicans should focus on the 2022 and 2024 races.”
Unfortunately, and even with all that anti-Trump vitriol, Brooks wasn’t able to triumph over Britt, who was a top aide to outgoing senator Shelby. Surely it’s only a matter of time before Trump has something to say about the defeat.
(Via The Daily Beast)