Representative Mo Brooks (R-AL), a candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that the House Select Committee investigate the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was a “propaganda effort” meant to influence the midterm elections in November.
Reporter Vaughn Hillyard asked, “Will you sit with the January 6 committee?”
Brooks said, “If they were under terms and conditions I believe are more appropriate, I’m willing to consider that more so than them trying to subpoena me in the midst of a campaign. They wanted me to be in Washington, D.C. taking up a full week last week. That wasn’t going to cut it. They have to do this in public. This is the public’s business. No more of this secret, clandestine stuff where they leak information.”
Hillyard asked, “Do you regret stoking, by using those words, by stoking the crowd there that ultimately led to that attack?”
Brooks said, “You are distorting my remarks when you said that. Let’s be clear. We have had a Barack Obama federal judge who has entered a court order saying there’s no plausible argument that can be advanced that my conduct had anything to do with the attack on the United States Capitol. That ends it.”
When Hillyard tried to interrupt, Brooks said, “Let me finish my remarks. You are taking out a snippet out of one sentence in a two-sentence paragraph. Look at the preceding sentence that shows I’m talking about the 2022 and 2024 elections.”
Hillyard said, “I’m interested why you will not sit down with the January 6 committee.”
Brooks said, “I have tried to go through the steps required. Most importantly, it be done in public, not be secret.”
Hillyard asked, “You would do a public hearing?”
Brooks said, “There you go. You interrupted me again. There are four parts to all this. I get past one, sometimes two, and you interrupt me before I can conclude. There’s another bigger picture with respect to this January 6 committee. My judgment, along with the other Republican colleagues, it’s a propaganda effort. It’s not an effort to discern the truth. If they wanted to discern the truth, then they would have done what we have done throughout the history of the House of Representatives. We would have had a bipartisan committee where the Democrats select their people, Republicans select their people, and they combine so that you get all viewpoints from all the witnesses instead of a one-sided sham that’s designed to impact the election in 2022. That’s all it’s about.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN