Donald Trump said he didn’t say it. Mo Brooks said again that he did.
The former president disputed he told the Huntsville congressman he wanted him to work to remove President Joe Biden from office, according to an interview Trump gave to The Washington Post.
Such action, Brooks said Trump believed, would facilitate Trump returning to the White House.
“I didn’t ask him to do it,” Trump said in an interview Wednesday with The Post. “He’s in no position to do it. I certainly didn’t ask him to do it.”
Related: Mo Brooks still going to be MAGA Mo, disputes Trump claims and adds GOP backing
Related: Mo Brooks says Trump wanted him to ‘remove Joe Biden,’ hold new election: ‘But I took a sworn oath’
In the midst of Trump’s falling out with Brooks’ Senate campaign, the congressman said that Trump had repeatedly made the request. Brooks said he told him each time there was no legal way to do it.
In a statement Thursday, Brooks stood by his earlier claims.
“Congressman Brooks stands by his recollection,” the statement said. “Both Congressman Brooks and President Trump agree on this: The 2020 election was stolen and we have to make sure we’re doing everything in our power to fix what happened so it never can happen again. That’s why Brooks was proud to stand with President Trump on Jan. 6 (2021). There will be no greater champion of election integrity in the U.S. Senate than Mo Brooks.”
Brooks’ assertion about Trump’s request has garnered national attention in the aftermath of Trump withdrawing his endorsement of Brooks’ Senate campaign. While Trump said he cooled on Brooks following his comments at the Cullman rally in August 2021, Brooks maintains Trump’s complaint is over Brooks’ resistance to trying to remove Biden from office.
The conversations date to September 2021.
“In numerous conversations after September 1, 2021, the president keeps bringing this issue up,” Brooks told AL.com last month. “And he wants me to rescind the election.
“It’s a legal impossibility. And I told President Trump that and he doesn’t like it.”
Brooks said Trump would sometimes become “irate” at the congressman’s resistance.
“Every time President Trump would bring up rescinding the election, I would do my best to explain to him that that is not constitutionally permitted,” Brooks said. “And he would disagree with my advice, often getting irate in the process. But I swore an oath to defend and protect the Constitution.
“And I believe in the rule of law. And the Constitution, the United States code, are clear. January 6 is the only day in which a presidential election dispute can be resolved. And it is to be resolved by the United States Congress and nobody else. Not even the Supreme Court.”
In the interview with The Post, Trump followed up his comments on Brooks by appearing to advocate for Biden to be removed from office.
“But I believe when you see massive election fraud, I can’t imagine that somebody who won the election based on fraud, that something doesn’t happen?” Trump told The Post. “How has it not happened? If you are a bank robber, or you’re a jewelry store robber, and you go into Tiffany’s and you steal their diamonds and get caught, you have to give the diamonds back.”