Representative Mo Brooks, a Republican from Alabama, was confronted by Fox News host Sandra Smith on Sunday over his claims that former President Donald Trump was “robbed” during the 2020 election.
Smith noted that Trump withdrew his endorsement of Brooks back in March. In a statement at the time, the former president accused Brooks of “going woke” after he urged other Republicans to put the results of the 2020 presidential election behind them.
During the interview, Smith asked the GOP lawmaker: “What exactly did the president ask you to do after the 2020 election?”
Brooks responded that he had multiple conversations with Trump between September 2021 and March 2022 “that revolved around his being reinstated, revolved around his wanting to rescind the election.”
“And I can understand him wanting to do that. He was robbed in my judgement in 2020…and so I can understand that desire,” Brooks said.
However, the Republican lawmaker said the “conflict was when I would explain the law does not permit us to do that.”
“Our one shot at reversing the election, our one shot in an election contest under the United States Constitution and federal law is on January 6…That’s the final appeal day,” Brooks said. January 6, 2021 was the day that Congress voted to certify the 2020 election results in favor of Joe Biden.
“We can use what happened in 2020 as a motivation to try to get better election laws, to use as motivation to win in 2022 and 2024 to save our country, but what is now done in 2020 is irreversible under the United States Constitution…I might not like it that that’s the end game, but that is the end game,” Brooks added.
“And just to go on the record there has been still no evidence or proof provided that there was any sort of fraud,” Smith said before the Alabama Republican interjected.
“I don’t know why you people in the media keep saying that, but that is absolutely false,” Brooks said.
“What is false, sir?” Smith asked.
Brooks said that there were “150 congressman and senators who absolutely disagree with you on what you just said. So what are you calling them? What are you calling them when you say 150 Republican senators and congressmen looked at the voter fraud issue and said there was a major problem?” Last year, 147 Republicans voted to overturn the 2020 election results.
Later in the interview, Smith quoted a Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, who resigned this week.
The former commissioner, Dean Knudson, told The Wall Street Journal in article published Friday, that there is “no evidence that election fraud is the reason Trump lost Wisconsin, and that’s not for lack of looking.”
He also urged Republicans to “pivot away from conspiracy theories” and “focus on the issues that affect Wisconsin families and their pocketbooks.”
Brooks later cited other examples to argue that fraud took place in 2020, including the documentary 2000 Mules. The film by right-wing political commentator Dinesh D’Souza claims to reveal evidence that the last election was rigged due to widespread voter fraud. A fact check by Reuters published this week, however, stated that it “did not find any concrete evidence definitively showing proof of fraud” in the film.
“That has been looked at and fact-checked by multiple outlets including Reuters, who have debunked that as any sort proof that there was widespread voter fraud,” Smith said.
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