Such a troubled relationship between these two tenderly elder lovers. Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks and Donald Trump seemed destined to be together forever and yet… something happened. Actually, “what happened” is pretty straightforward, Mo Brooks was polling third in a 3-way race, and not a “close” third. There was no chance that Trump would risk endorsing a guy that couldn’t even get into the runoff!

And so Trump withdrew his endorsement this morning, as CNN:

Trump’s stunning decision to untether himself from a candidate who became the first Republican congressman to vote against certifying the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021, comes amid several dismissive comments that Brooks recently made about the election. Brooks was booed at a rally last August upon telling the crowd they should look beyond the last presidential contest. And in the last two weeks, he has publicly accused Trump of asking him to break the law by exploring ways to reinstall him as commander-in-chief.

These two can talk about moving past elections all they want, the decision to rescind the endorsement is due almost solely to Brooks’s inability to crack the top two candidates. You will note that Trump did not rescind the endorsement in August.

The other interesting element is that Brooks is the one who gave the “kick-ass” (yes, he said that) speech on January 6th, wearing body armor under his coat, which always made people wonder if he knew what was coming next. Brooks might be a little shy about things now that the Select Committee is hearing about burner phones and plans to storm up to the Capitol.

Regardless, Brooks fired back at Trump and, for the first time in years, sounded somewhat reasonable:

Mo Brooks issues a statement where he says that even he isn’t crazy enough for Trump. pic.twitter.com/yxdY1UM6z7

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) March 23, 2022

Right.

This is the same man who told people to “kick ass” when they went up at the Capitol and he – as a lawyer – had to know then that the Vice President’s only job is to open the Electoral College votes, like the winner at the Academy Awards, only everyone knows the winner.

So Mo can try to sound high-minded all he wants, he surely is speaking as much to the Select Committee in this statement as he is to Donald Trump.

By the way, I was on the Laura Coates Show on Sirius XM 124 talking about this very matter just three days ago and… predicted what happened today. If picking the basketball games this weekend was just as easy, I’d have a lot more money one gets in predicting political maneuvering three days out. It can be listened to here:

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[email protected] with Nicole Hickman