U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who was one of the very first leaders of Donald Trump‘s January 6 insurrection, on Friday urged GOP voters at a conservative conference to fight and die for America, just like George Washington’s soldiers did at Valley Forge, and telegraphing to them their very “survival” is at stake.
Brooks was the first member of Congress to declare he would vote against certifying the results of the Electoral College and vote to overturn the free and fair presidential election. On January 6 he also delivered a speech, telling Trump supporters at the Trump-financed, Trump-produced, and Trump-promoted rally prior to the violent attack on the Capitol, “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.”
On Friday Brooks told attendees at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, that the “choice is simple: We can surrender and submit. Or we can fight back, as our ancestors have done.”
The use of the word “ancestors” appears quite intentional, and may have been used in an anti-immigrant whitewashing to make his audience feel even more connected to America’s founders.
“Think for a moment about our ancestors who fought at Valley Forge,” Brooks continued, repeated that key word. “They didn’t fight the British, they fought for survival.”
“12,000 Continental soldiers arrived, five, six months later 2000 had died. Think about what they went through, burying your brothers, your fathers your sons, 10 to 15 a day, every day for six months.”
Again, notice the very intentional choice of the word “your,” not “their.”
“That’s the kind of sacrifice that we have to think about and I ask you, are you willing to fight for America? Are you willing to fight for America? Well, the choice is simple: This is how you fight for America. This is what America needs you to do, and you as members of CPAC being here today, you’re the corps. You’re the ones that have to be the Energizer Bunny.”
Brooks use of the word “corps” can be taken as a military reference, or he could claim he simply meant “core,” but either way his speech is yet another example of his attempt to incite violence, as he has been accused of doing on January 6.
He concluded his address by again urging conservatives to “fight.”
Videos via Forbes’ Andrew Solender, his report is here.