Former President Donald Trump sent shockwaves through the Alabama political world on Wednesday in comments given to the Washington Examiner’s David Drucker about his position on the Alabama U.S. Senate race.
In what was described as a “wide-ranging telephone interview,” Trump said he was “disappointed” in Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) and suggested that Brooks may have “changed” since he endorsed him nearly one year ago.
“Mo Brooks is disappointing,” Trump said to the Examiner. “I’m determining right now, has Mo Brooks — has he changed?”
For that reason, the former president is reportedly considering whether or not he will pull his endorsement, referring to comments from Brooks given at a rally in Cullman, AL last summer.
“I’m disappointed that he gave an inarticulate answer, and I’ll have to find out what he means,” Trump said. “If it meant what he sounded like, I would have no problem changing [my endorsement] because when you endorse somebody, you endorse somebody based on principle. If he changed that principle, I would have no problem doing that.”
The Brooks campaign blamed a “bogus poll” from the Alabama Forest Association’s ForestPAC showing U.S. Army veteran Mike Durant leading the U.S. Senate Republican primary narrowly over former Business Council of Alabama head Katie Britt, 33.8% to 32%, with Brooks in third at 17.6%.
According to the campaign, the Britt campaign lied to Trump and that she was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) candidate.
“Here’s the deal: Katie Britt and her team put out a bogus poll, then lied to President Trump about it,” a Brooks spokesman said in a statement given to Breitbart News. “She’s still in third place where her pathetic campaign has always been, and that might explain the President’s mindset– they lied to him. The matter has been addressed, President Trump knows Katie Britt lied to him, he knows she’s Mitch McConnell’s candidate, and he’ll remember this episode. He also knows Mike Durant’s campaign is being funded by Never Trumpers. There is no other choice for President Trump: not Mitch McConnell’s candidate, and not a Never Trumper. President Trump also knows Mo’s position on 2020 has never changed: the 2020 election was fraught with voter fraud and election theft on a massive scale, and that Mo Brooks was the ONLY one in this race to stand with him on January 6.”
Alabama Republican voters head to the polls on May 24 to cast a ballot for their preference to represent the GOP on the November ballot.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor