On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – live from the nation’s capitol Leahy spoke to Congressman Mo Brooks about some Alabama football his aspirations to run for a Senate seat in 2020.
Nearing the end of the show, Brooks commented upon the recent impeachment inquiry by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and how he believes the Democrats are putting the cart before the horse without any real evidence. He states, “They’re (the Democrats) pushing forward with impeachment even though they don’t have the evidence.”
Leahy: We are here with our neighbor just to the south congressman from Huntsville Alabama. Welcome, Congressman Mo Brooks.
Brooks: It’s a pleasure to be here.
Leahy: We are delighted you are here. And we were talking a little bit off the air about football. And I have to say Alabama has it all over Tennessee when it comes to football.
Brooks: Well everybody has it all over Tennessee right now. (Leahy laughs)
Leahy: So we reached out and we went into coach Saban’s coaching stat. And we brought Jeremy Pruitt up here and you know, it’s not going so well so far.
Brooks: Jeremy Pruitt is a good coach. I don’t know what the problem is at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Both my parents and my brother graduated from the University of Tennessee so we’re very appreciative of the education. But something mysterious is happening with their football program. They’re just jinxed.
Leahy: (Chuckles) I know. I know. Talk about the mercy rule. I think we’re going to need the mercy rule if we play Alabama again. It’s going to be really bad.
Brooks: I remember when Peyton Manning was at the University of Tennessee and the very first pass he threw against Alabama, something like a 75-yard touchdown. I expect Alabama will so the same kind of mercy (Leahy laughs) that Tennessee showed us when they were beating us like a drum for so many years.
Leahy: So it turns out football coaches are very popular in Alabama. And there’s a former Auburn football coach, Tommy Tuberville who was a good coach at Auburn but he didn’t bring home the national championship. They paid him like 5 million bucks to go away and he went to a couple of other places. Now he’s back. He’s running for the Senate. I think he’s doing pretty well there.
Brooks: Well, Tommy Tuberville is ahead in the polls about 2-1. The most recent one I’ve seen had Tommy Tuberville at about 36% percent with the second-place guy at 18%. And then yesterday Alabama Farm Bureau which is the organization that represents agriculture in the state of Alabama endorsed Tommy Tuberville outright in a six-person race.
And so that’s a little bit unexpected that they would take a chance like that. But that’s a huge boost to Tommy Tuberville’s campaign.
Leahy: So I guess the bottom line is in Alabama they like football coaches more than politicians right? (Laughs)
Brooks: Yes. That’s been the case for decades.
Leahy: So you ran for the Senate in the special election and you finished third behind…
Brooks: Third out of 10 candidates.
Leahy: Very close. And a lot of people, myself included think that you would have been a fantastic Senator. And the guy who would have won the runoff election and the general election and it would be today Senator Mo Brooks a Republican instead of Senator Doug Jones a Democrat who’s following the Democrat line.
Do you have any plans in the future, I know not in 2020, would you consider if people asked to run in 2022 when Richard Shelby is. I think is he is retiring?
Brooks: Richard Shelby has not publicly announced that he’s retiring. But he’s told a lot of people privately that he is retiring and he’s not going to run for re-election. In which case it will be an open Senate seat in 2022. If I have the same kind of support that encouraged me to run in 2020 against Doug Jones, had about 4 million dollars in commitments.
If I have that same kind of support than I’d look at it long and hard and probably would jump into the race. But I’ve got to evaluate what the circumstances are in 2020. I also got to evaluate how I can best serve the people of the United States of America and of course the people in the state of Alabama at the same time.
Whether it’s best to stay in the House or take a chance and run in the United States Senate. The downside of running for the United States Senate is we don’t have enough conservative voices now in the United States Congress House or Senate. So you’re putting a conservative seat at risk.
And it’s so hard for conservatives to win because all too often they’re badly outspent by establishment Republican candidates. By way of example in 2010 when I was elected, the two candidates who were running against me outspent me about 2.5 million to 160 something thousand dollars. That’s about a 13 or 14:1 ratio.
Whatever that math ends up being. We were fortunate enough to be able to win without a runoff. One of them was an incumbent, a party switcher who was elected as a Democrat, voted for Nancy Pelosi and then switched parties. So I was running against an incumbent congressman and another pretty good candidate.
So you have to look at all the circumstances. You have to make sure you have the weaponry. I assure you I’m not going to repeat 2022 what happened in 2017 where Mitch McConnell and the left-wing of the Republican party where they were able to spend 5-10 million dollars attacking me. And I didn’t have the ability to correct the record.
Leahy: You need 5 or 10 million punch back right?
Brooks: I just need enough. And if I’d had 3-5 million, even though I would have been badly outspent still, if I had 3-5 million in 2017 we’d have won that Republican primary. So I’ve got to evaluate the support that I have. It’s one thing for voters to say, “Gosh, I’m all for you Mo.”
It’s another thing for them to sacrifice like they’re asking me to sacrifice. By sacrificing that means they’d have to give up their time and they’d have to give up their money because that is what makes a successful campaign.
Leahy: So last night at 5:00 pm, Nancy Pelosi issued a statement that she’s going to begin an impeachment inquiry.
Brooks: I’ve heard a little bit about that. (Laughs)
Leahy: I’m sure you’ve issued a statement on that. Can you reiterate that statement and perhaps add something more for our listening audience.
Brooks: Sure. This is going to have to be more than just Russian collusion, witch hunt that’s based on gossip, hearsay rumor mill type stuff. The Democrats are going to have to come up with a specific felony federal statute that they allege that Donald Trump has violated. And there’s going to have to be hard evidence. Again not rumor mill or gossip. But evidence.
Leahy: Or hearsay.
Brooks: Or hearsay. Real evidence that shows the President of the United States violated a federal criminal statute. Keep in mind the constitution it’s bribery, treason, high crimes, and misdemeanors.
Leahy: That’s the standard.
Brooks: That’s the legal standard. And I took an oath to abide by and protect the constitution and I’m going to do that. But so far there is zero evidence. By evidence, I’m talking about what would be admissible in a court of law. There is zero evidence that the President of the United States has committed any kind of crime.
So, the Democrats have the cart before the horse at this point. They’re pushing forward with impeachment even though they don’t have the evidence. It kind of reminds me of the old Russian saying where the prosecutor said, “You show me the man and I’ll find the crime.”
Leahy: Well, they’ve been looking for that crime since he was elected in 2016 right?
Brooks: Well yeah, but there’s a second step in it too. Keep in mind we have a 14th amendment to the constitution that guarantees equal protection to the law to all of us.
Leahy: Including the President.
Brooks: Including the President. In the 1990’s you had Bill Clinton who confessed to committing felonies. Perjury and obstruction of justice. And with that confession of felonies the Democrats still refused to impeach and convict him, remove him from the Presidency of the United States.
So if you believe in equal protection, whatever the Democrats come up with if anything, not only do they have to have hard evidence. Not only do they have to prove it. But whatever it is, it has to be more than what did not remove Bill Clinton from the White House.
And we know that Bill Clinton was not removed for a commission of a felony, perjury, and obstruction of justice. So it’s got to be a more serious allegation than that for us to even consider it. If you believe in equal protection.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
