President Donald Trump formally endorsed Alabama Sen. Luther Strange in a tweet Tuesday evening, a decision pro-Trump candidate Rep. Mo Brooks slammed.
“Senator Luther Strange has done a great job representing the people of the Great State of Alabama,” Trump tweeted. “He has my complete and total endorsement!”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell backs Strange in the Alabama special election which will be held on August 15, 2017. A Runoff election date has been set on Sept. 26 in the event no candidate reaches the crucial 50 percent mark.
Brooks slammed the decision, saying that although he respects the president’s ability to make a decision, he thinks that McConnell somehow convinced him to back the wrong candidate.
“I am baffled and disappointed Mitch McConnell and the Swamp somehow misled the president into endorsing Luther Strange, Brooks said according to Roll Call. “Perhaps the president is unaware that Luther Strange corruptly and unethically held a criminal investigation over the head of disgraced Governor Bentley to obtain the senate appointment.”
Former Gov. Robert Bentley appointed Strange to replace Sen. Jeff Sessions just in time to avoid a formal investigation. The current senator served as the state’s attorney general and launched an investigation into allegations the governor used campaign funds to cover up an affair.
Bentley resigned shortly afterward.
Both candidates launched campaign ads attacking each other for anti-Trump comments made during the 2016 presidential election. The Alabama special election is perhaps the first in the 2017 electoral cycle in which both Republicans raced to be the closest to President Trump.
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