Martha Brooks, wife of U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, spoke to the Pike County republican Women Wednesday about Mo’s candidacy for the upcoming Senate election and his brush with death last month.

Mo Brooks was practicing for the upcoming charity Congressional Baseball game when James Hodgkinson, 61, of Belleville, Illinois opened fire on several GOP members. It was later revealed that Hodgkinson had a list of six lawmakers in his pocket with Brooks being one of them.

“I was in D.C. when it happened,” Martha said. “He rode his bike to the ballpark like he always does and I decided to check my texts one last time. I had a message from Mo that said shots were fired, Steve Scalise was down and three others were shot, but that Mo was okay. That was about 15 minutes after it happened.”

Martha said the biggest change since the shooting is increased security around Mo as he goes about, noting that Mo still elected to ride his bike home after the event.

Martha pointed to his words just hours after the shooting as an example of why he believes he would make a great Senator.

“The media was surrounding him,” Martha said. “You could see his hair was straight up and he was sweaty and dirty. His pants were almost falling down and he still had his glove on. A reporter shoves a microphone in his face and asks if this changed his views on the gun situation in America.”

This was Mo Brooks’ response: “Not with respect to the Second Amendment,” Brooks answered. “The Second Amendment, a right to bear arms is to help ensure we always have a republic. And as with any constitutional provision in the Bill of Rights, there are adverse aspects to each of those rights that we enjoy as people, and what we just saw here is one of the bad side effects of someone not exercising those rights properly. But we’re not going to get rid of freedom of speech because some people say some really ugly things and hurt other people’s feelings. We’re not going get rid of the 4th Amendment search and seizure rights because it allows some criminals to go free who should be behind bars. These rights are there to protect Americans, and while each of them has a negative aspect to them, they’re fundamental to our being the greatest nation in world history. So, no, I’m not changing my position on any of the rights that we enjoy as Americans.”

Brooks has come under fire in recent days for airing an ad that included audio of the shooting as well as portions of his response to the reporter’s question. He has also had negative advertisements run against him regarding his past comments against Donald trump, who at the time was a candidate opposing Ted Cruz, who Brooks was supporting in his campaign.

Martha addressed how that situation has affected the family.

“This is the time of year that spouses of political candidates don’t watch TV, listen to the radio or go out to the mailbox,” Martha said. “ There have been endless negative ads about Mo, bashing him for not supporting Trump. As chairman of Ted Cruz’s campaign, he would say some things were not complimentary of Trump as an opponent the same as Trump would say thing not complimentary about Ted Cruz.”

Martha pointed to a $2,500 donation to the Florida strike force that helped get Trump the win in that state as evidence that her husband does support the Trump administration, as the donation came shortly after scandal hit when the Access Hollywood tape depicting Trump making derogatory comments about women

Many Republicans shied away from trump in that moment, Martha said, but her husband did not.”

Brooks is one of 16 overall candidates competing for the open U.S. Senate seat in the upcoming special election. He is facing off against eight others in the Republican primary on August 15.

Brooks said Wednesday, however, that he would withdraw from the race if his opponents did the same, so that former Senator Jeff Sessions could return to the role that he vacated last year to serve as Attorney General under Trump.

Trump has been criticizing Sessions recently over social media for his decision to recuse himself form an investigation into Trump’s relationship with Russia and has even spoken with advisers about firing Sessions.