Saying that he got a tip that there would be violence on January 6th, Republican Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks told a reporter for Slate that he was wearing body armor while he extolled the mob of Trump supporters to “start taking down names and kicking ass!”

“I was warned on Monday that there might be risks associated with the next few days,” Brooks told reporter Jim Newell. “And as a consequence of those warnings, I did not go to my condo. Instead, I slept on the floor of my office. And when I gave my speech at the Ellipse, I was wearing body armor.”

“That’s why I was wearing that nice little windbreaker,” he told Newell with a grin. “To cover up the body armor.”  Photos of Brooks at the event show him wearing a roomy windbreaker as he urged the crowd to violence. 

The admission that he was wearing body armor runs contrary to statements by Donald Trump and many others that there was no hint that the crowd assembled on the Ellipse on January 6th was violent or that there was a threat to government institutions.

The admission makes it more likely that Brooks would be called before the bipartisan House select committee investigating the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the US Capitol, where Trump supporters stormed the building yelling for Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to be hanged as Congress attempted to do their Constitutional duty to certify the Electoral College votes.

Brooks told Newell he didn’t know what motivated the crowd to become violent, citing “financial losses suffered because of the government’s reaction to COVID-19,” “the belief that there was significant voter fraud and election theft activity,” or “a great love and respect for President Trump.”