Expelling Mo Brooks from Congress
Morris Jackson “Mo” Brooks Jr. (R-AL) has represented Alabama’s fifth congressional district in the U.S. House for a full decade now. His interests certainly no longer align with those of his constituents writ large, or with those of our country as a whole. Rep. Brooks’ interests are self-serving and ignoble. After the coup attempt at our Capitol on January 6th, Brooks voted to overturn the will of the voters when he chose to object to the Electoral College election results.
It gets even worse than opposing certification of the election results as a show-off stunt, however. Shortly before the storming of the Capitol on that now-infamous day, Brooks incited the impressionable crowd at the pre-insurrection hate rally. Perhaps the most-remembered line from Brooks’ incitement of the gathered horde was “today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.” During his 10-minute diatribe, Brooks spoke of “fighting” and “separation,” and repeatedly referred to Democrats as “socialists” who, per his estimation, seek to “rip the heart out of our country.” Brooks whined about non-existent oppression of conservatives in our nation, and of course he promoted the Big Lie and disinformation about voting. It’s clear Brooks’ goal was to incite the crowd and urge them to do as much damage as possible.
Now some congressional Democrats are pushing to expel Rep. Brooks for his obvious role in whipping the mob into a violent frenzy. Even the far-right governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, thinks Brooks went too far, and she’s not known for her political moderation. Brooks’ actions on January 6th alone warrant expulsion, and it remains to be seen if he coordinated more closely with the insurrectionists than is currently known.
