Maybe it’s time for “but his emails” to be a meme. CNN has more this morning on what Mark Meadows had in his:
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sent an email saying the National Guard would be present to ‘protect pro Trump people’ in the lead up to the US Capitol insurrection, according to a new contempt report released by the January 6 committee Sunday night.
It was just one of several new details in the report about Meadows’ actions before and during January 6, as well as his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. The resolution comes after the panel informed Meadows last week that it had “no choice” but to advance criminal contempt proceedings against him given that he had decided to no longer cooperate.
The committee notes that in one email Meadows sent to an individual about January 6, he said that “the National Guard would be present to ‘protect pro Trump people’ and that many more would be available on standby,” according to the report. The new documents come as Meadows’ role is under renewed scrutiny following his decision to cease cooperating with the committee last week.
Having the National Guard present to “protect pro Trump people” would make a plausible cover story for using the Guard presence to further intimidate Congress. As it worked out, violence by Trump supporters did that without the Guard’s help. Their delay in arrival to protect Congress enhanced the effect. Questions need answering.
Meadows was never really going to cooperate. But he was going to try to have it both ways: both to support Trump’s seditionist fantasies about alternate slates of electors and to play voice of reason, depending on the audience:
If Meadows was still cooperating, the committee also said it would inquire about a text exchange with a media personality “who had encouraged the presidential statement asking people to, quote, ‘peacefully leave the Capitol,'” as well as a text sent “to one of— by one of the President’s family members indicating that Mr. Meadows is, quote, ‘pushing hard,’ end quote, for a statement from President Trump to, quote, ‘condemn this shit,’ end quote, happening at the Capitol.”
The committee has previously sought communications between Meadows and certain rally organizers as the panel remains focused on identifying any level of coordination with the Trump White House. The report goes on to note that Meadows was directly involved in efforts to overturn the election results in key swing states Trump lost and helped push unfounded claims about voter fraud.
But on the plotters’ PowerPoint, the press is still “sleepwalking past the coup,” Eric Boehlert complains:
The coup blueprint still has not appeared on the front page of single major American newspaper, nor has any influential editorial page weighed in. Republican members of Congress have not been repeatedly pressed to explain the document and why, twelve months ago, the president’s chief of staff took a meeting with the author of the unhinged PowerPoint. Or why members of the author’s conspiracy team, just days before the deadly January 6 insurrection, spoke to a group of Republican senators and House members, briefing them on the bogus claims of foreign interference in the election.
As of Sunday afternoon, “PowerPoint” had been mentioned just 20 times on CNN in the previous week, 50 times on MSNBC, and to nobody’s surprise, 0 times on Fox News. There has not been a single network evening news mention, according to a search of Nexis.
The media’s shoulder shrug response has left Democrats perplexed and enraged. “Can someone explain to me why this isn’t the only thing in the news?” tweeted Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI). “I deeply respect the fourth estate, but, holy shit they had a plan to just end democracy, and is the press gonna just be like “are democrats using the wrong words again?
The press had a hard enough time bringing itself to use wrong words like “lie.” Here’s a wrong word the media will have an even harder time with.