Mo Brooks, a former ally of Donald Trump who whipped up a crowd at the 6 January rally with his fiery rhetoric, has now described the former president as a “dishonest, disloyal, incompetent [and] crude” politician.
With many in the GOP openly criticising Mr Trump after the midterm elections disappointment, the Alabama congressman said it would be a “bad mistake” for Republicans to have Mr Trump as their nominee in 202.
Mr Brooks has said he will retire from politics after his sixth term in Congress ends on 3 January 2023. He earned an endorsement from Mr Trump last year for the 2022 Senate primary before he withdrew it, saying the Alabama representative “went woke”.
“It would be a bad mistake for the Republicans to have Donald Trump as their nominee in 2024,” Mr Brooks said in an interview with AL.com.
“Donald Trump has proven himself to be dishonest, disloyal, incompetent, crude and a lot of other things that alienate so many independents and Republicans.”
He said even a candidate who “campaigns from his basement can beat him”, in an apparent potshot towards Joe Biden, who took a cautionary approach during campaigning for the 2020 elections at the time of the raging Covid pandemic.
Mr Brooks, who has raised questions over the results of the 2020 presidential election, said he was not fighting for the former president but for “election integrity”.
“Donald Trump just happened to be the beneficiary of it,” he added.
He said his perception of Mr Trump is not new and pointed out that he also said in 2016 that he was “dishonest”, as “you cannot trust a single word that he says and I have never recanted that”.
Mr Brooks has faced scrutiny for his actions in riling up the crowd of Trump supporters at the 6 January rally that preceded the Capitol riot. He agreed that “I led the charge” but justified it by claiming, without evidence, that there was “massive voter fraud, election theft” in the 2020 elections.
Mr Trump only withdrew his endorsement for Mr Brooks after he said that Republicans should move on and look past the 2020 election. The Alabama politician went on to take second place behind attorney and former Senate chief of staff Katie Britt in the May primary.
“No question, I am displeased with Donald Trump,” Mr Brooks said. “But that does not change the truthfulness of what I say. I challenge anybody to make the argument that you can trust the word of Donald Trump.”
Amid an ongoing feud between Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Mr Trump, as the former has emerged as a real 2024 contender during this midterms season, Mr Brooks appeared to put his weight behind Mr DeSantis to be the GOP nominee in 2024.
“Ron DeSantis or somebody like him,” Mr Brooks said when asked about potential candidates who could carry the GOP banner in 2024.
He added that he would support Ted Cruz and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. “But we need someone who is honorable, someone who has good character, someone that the American people respect. They might disagree with, but they respect.
“And Ron DeSantis is a fighter for the foundational principles that have combined to make America the greatest nation in world history,” he added.
