On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, as well as 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of Mo Brooks, the U.S. House Representative from Alabama’s 5th Congressional District. Brooks, a Tea Party Wave beneficiary, channels the sort of bigotry worthy of the legacy of George Wallace, having stated he is willing to “do anything short of shooting” illegal immigrants to solve the problem, and characterizing Democratic policies as part of a “War on Whites”. Brooks is currently one of the most xenophobic opponents of immigration, and on more than one occasion has stated his belief that immigration reform was a plot by Democrats to “dilute the voting power of Americans”, and called for the impeachment of President Obama for his executive orders on immigration. He also has claimed Democrats use “class warfare”, ”racial division“, and ”sexual exploitation“ to help them get votes, which is quite the shift in the actual paradigm in this country. In July of 2015, Mo Brooks went on Yellowhammer Radio, and stated his belief that illegal immigrants have murdered more Americans than the six to seven thousand Americans who have died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq so far this century (Hint: That’s insane, and xenophobic, but that’s Mo Brooks for you). Brooks, in an interview not long after the worst mass shooting in U.S. History at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, weighed in by claiming that “the Muslim community, which, if it had its way, would kill every homosexual in the United States of America.”
With 385 days to go until the 2016 election, Mo Brooks already was talking about impeaching Hillary Clinton for having a private e-mail server. A month later, Rep. Brooks, during a Congressional hearing, suggested the United States should arm Ukraine in their conflict with Russia, in the hopes that it would lead the Russians out of Syria. There was agreement from both hawk and dove alike on Capitol Hill that this was a moronic suggestion, and it was nice to see both sides agree that Mo Brooks has terrible ideas.
Much like how in April of 2018, that Rep. Brooks was calling for the National Guard to not just be deployed to the U.S./Mexico border, but they be allowed to use “whatever force necessary” to hunt for border-crossers. Many of whom, of course, are women with children fleeing violence and seeking amnesty, but hey, let’s just give the Guardsmen the green light to gun them down, y’know?
After winning re-election in 2016 with 67% of the vote in a safe conservative district, Mo Brooks was trying to jump from the U.S. House, and supplant Sen. Luther Strange, the man appointed to replace Jeff Sessions by shamed (now former) Alabama Governor Robert Bentley. In July of 2017, Brooks promised that if elected to the U.S. Senate, he would use his position to filibuster by reading the King James Bible until Donald Trump’s proposed border wall (that experts note wouldn’t work) is funded, and then released an ad to promote his bid to get elected to the U.S. Senate that features audio of the attempted assassination of Congressman Steve Scalise (he was there at the time). Both parties criticized him for trying to exploit the shooting, because obviously. Well, against some of the most conservative lunatics Alabama had to offer, Mo Brooks failed to advance out of the GOP Primary, finishing third behind Luther Strange. (Doug Jones would win in the general, because there still is some sanity in this world.)
Anyway, perhaps the biggest moment of utter stupidity from Mo Brooks of late came in May of 2018, when he tried a new strategy for denying climate change as a member of the House Science Committee. When faced with statistics about rising sea levels… you see, Brooks explained the sea levels were only rising because “rocks were falling into the ocean”. If that wasn’t insane enough, Brooks then went on to claim that the Antarctic ice sheet, which is melting rapidly, was somehow GROWING.
“What about the White Cliffs of Dover … and California, where you have the waves crashing against the shorelines, and time and time again you have the cliffs crashing into the sea? All of that displaces water which forces it to rise, does it not?
There are plenty of studies that have come that show with respect to Antarctica that the total ice sheet, particularly that above land, is increasing, not decreasing. Now, you could make a different argument if you want to talk about Greenland or the Arctic.”
Anyhow, Mo Brook’s voting record continues to qualify as something so conservative, it can make sane people ill:
- February 16th, 2017: Brooks votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping.
- March 16th, 2017: Mo Brooks votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge’s written order.
- March 28th, 2017: Rep. Brooks votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers’ internet usage to businesses.
- May 4th, 2017: Brooks votes for the House GOP’s healthcare plan, that would kick roughly 24 million people off their health insurance plans, allow up to 28,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, and would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions which would include such medical conditions as pregnancy (current or past), postpartum depression, or prior sexual assault. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Brooks would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
- June 8th, 2017: Mo Brooks votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
- July 26th, 2017: Rep. Brooks goes circular firing squad on his fellow Republicans after they fail to pass a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, going as far as to call Sen. Mitch McConnell to step down as Senate Majority Leader.
- September 8th, 2017: Rep. Brooks chooses to be one of 90 Republicans in Congress who votes against disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey.
- October 3rd, 2017: Brooks votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
- December 19th, 2017: Mo Brooks votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations.
- February 18th, 2018: Brooks and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.
Mo Brooks won the 2018 GOP Primary to try and recapture his seat in Congress, and faces off Democrat Peter Joffrion, the former City Attorney of Huntsville. We’re not going to understate that Alabama is one of the reddest states, if not the reddest state… but after Doug Jones got elected to the U.S. Senate down there, we wouldn’t rule out Alabama deciding to jettison a moron like Mo Brooks in 2018 entirely. It would be a shocker, though, if it comes to pass.