Alabama representative Mo Brooks’ campaign ad uses clips of him talking to reporters in the aftermath of the shooting and derides the ‘liberal media’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A Republican congressman is using his experience as a survivor of last month’s mass shooting in Alexandria, Virginia, in a campaign ad.

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The Louisiana representative Steve Scalise was wounded in the shooting, as were two Capitol police officers and a congressional staffer. Scalise, seriously hurt, dragged himself across the baseball field, leaving a “trail of blood”.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Alabama representative Mo Brooks described crouching on the ground with other politicians and using his belt as a tourniquet to help the congressional staffer.

“There’s gunfire within about five, six, seven feet of my head,” Brooks told CNN. “There were some congressmen on phones screaming for reinforcements. Seemed like a long time, and we weren’t even hearing sirens from local police officers, which tells me they probably did not yet know what was going on.”



The 30-second campaign ad, released on Monday, is designed to show voters that Brooks has an unflinching commitment to protecting gun rights. It touts his effort to help the wounded, contains audio of shots being fired and refers to the gunman, James “Tom” Hodgkinson, as a “Bernie Sanders supporter” who “fires on Republican congressmen”.

The ad uses several clips of Brooks talking to reporters in the aftermath of the Alexandria shooting and derides the “liberal media” for asking the congressman if being the target of a mass shooting had “changed your views on the gun situation in America”.

“The second amendment right to bear arms is to help ensure that we always have a republic,” Brooks says. “So no, I’m not changing my position on any of the rights we enjoy as Americans.”

Many of the Republican lawmakers on the baseball field were gun rights supporters, and some had A-ratings from the National Rifle Association. Brooks’s swift reiteration of his support was echoed by other survivors, who made clear that even a mass shooting that left the Republican House whip in intensive care would not change the terms of the gun debate.

Brooks subsequently introduced legislation that would allow members of Congress “to carry a concealed weapon anywhere in America except the US Capitol or when in the presence of the president or vice-president”.

More guns would have helped end the shooting he experienced sooner, he argued. He also noted that the gunman had possessed what he called “a handwritten assassination list” that included Brooks’s name and office number.

Republican lawmakers have often posed with guns or shown footage of themselves shooting in campaign ads meant to appeal to their conservative base.



Brooks is part of a crowded field of Republicans vying to fill the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, now serving Donald Trump’s “beleaguered” attorney general. The special election primary will be held on 15 August.

A Brooks campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.