Donald Trump endorses Mo Brooks for Alabama Senate bid

Many Senators and members of Congress are up for re-election in 2022 and others have planned to retire and leave their seats. With former President Donald Trump looking to maintain his grip on the Republican party, he has endorsed Congressman Mo Brooks for his bid to win a Senate seat.

Trump announced his endorsement of Brooks Wednesday through a statement. Brooks is running to win the Alabama Senate seat that will be vacated by GOP Senator Richard Shelby who will be retiring in 2022.

The sixth-term House Republican is a staunch ally of Trump, supporting the now-former president during his two impeachment trials and supported objecting to the results of the 2020 elections. Brooks is expected to be in a race for the seat against former US ambassador to Slovenia Lynda Blanchard.

“Few Republicans have as much COURAGE and FIGHT as Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks,” said the former president in his statement.

Brooks was among the Republicans who were at Trump’s rally hours before the insurrection at the Capitol. The Alabama Congressman told the crowd of supporters to “start taking down names and kicking ass.”

Following the riots, some House Republicans have privately pushed for stripping Brooks of his committee assignments. The latest endorsement is another example of Trump’s plans to use his political popularity to back Senate candidates who have supported him. However, Trump’s endorsement does not guarantee a sure win, even in Alabama.

Back in 2017, Trump backed Senator Luther Strange, who ultimately lost to Roy Moore in the special election Republican primary. Following Trump’s endorsement of Moore even after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against the candidate, Moore lost to Democrat Doug Jones.

After his role in the Capitol riots, Trump was permanently suspended from his frequently-used social media platform Twitter, the platform citing that the now-former president was a threat to public safety. As Trump is no longer allowed back on the platform, Twitter has said that the National Archives and Records Administration could not bring back the former president’s Twitter account to serve as an archive account, including the posts that led to his permanent suspension.

However, NARA spokesman James Pritchett has said that the agency is still looking for ways to make the content from the former president’s Twitter account public, they would coordinate with Twitter on whether the archived tweets should be made available on the platform with the preserved tweets posted on the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Website.

Twitter spokesman Trenton Kennedy also said that both teams are in discussions as to how to preserve the former president’s Twitter posts.