Mo Brooks blames opponent for federal judges’ decision rejecting Alabama redistricting maps — ‘They were vetted by Katie Britt’

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) ties a decision from a three-judge federal court panel earlier this week that rejected the Alabama Legislature’s congressional redistricting map passed in a special session last year to his opponent, former Business Council of Alabama head Katie Britt.

Brooks told Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5’s “The Jeff Poor Show” that two of those three judges, who former President Donald Trump appointed, were vetted by Britt, who Brooks alleges was working at the behest of U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa), who Britt previously served as chief of staff.

“Let’s be clear: They were vetted by Katie Britt,” he said. “Katie Britt has bragged about how she’s the one who vetted these judges that are on this panel, two of these at least, and she vouched for them being great conservatives. Well, apparently, that is not at all the case because no conservative would have voted for a court order that segregates Alabama into black areas and white areas. That doesn’t help with racial relations when you’ve got judges who are segregating us based on race and saying, ‘This is an area only a black is going to be able to win. And this is an area that only whites are going to be able to win.'”

The fifth congressional district representative described the decision rendered by the federal judges as one that was playing into the Democratic Party’s “racial-division campaign strategy.”

“That’s not the way a republic is supposed to work,” Brooks continued. “By way of example, these judges seem to think African-Americans cannot win in predominantly white areas of the state. That is categorically false. Shelby County, overwhelmingly Republican, overwhelmingly caucasian just got through electing an African-American — not because he was an African-American. That’s not why he was elected to the legislature. He was elected to the legislature because he is a real good guy, and he is a conservative, and he shares the values of the people who elected him.”

“That’s what we need to be doing,” he added. “We need to be colorblind — not emphasizing or differentiating use based on race, ethnicity — keeping in mind skin pigmentation is an accident of birth. That’s not how we should evaluate each other based on an accident of birth. We should evaluate each other based on character, based on conduct, based on achievement, based on good things done, bad things done — not based on skin pigmentation. But that’s playing right into the ballpark of what the Democrats want to do with their racial-division campaign strategy.”

The Britt campaign rejected the charge from Brooks, claiming Brooks was “inaccurate” with his assessment.

“The Joe Biden of Alabama is at it again,” Sean Ross, a spokesman for the Britt campaign, said to Yellowhammer News. “Flip-flopping 40-year career politician Mo Brooks gets more and more confused the longer he stays in Washington. His claims are totally inaccurate, and it’s shameful to see him once again turning his back on President Trump, who did a tremendous job appointing constitutional conservatives to the federal judiciary. This is what happens with members of the self-serving permanent political class — they’ll say anything to further their own careers and safeguard their paychecks instead of actually serving their constituents. It’s time for fresh blood to shake things up in Washington. As Alabama’s next U.S. Senator, Katie will fight tirelessly to defend our Christian conservative values and preserve the American Dream for our children and our children’s children.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.