Desperately seeking to subvert the will of the people
Talking Points Memo rolled out a series of posts Monday chronicling hundreds of text messages involving Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and 34 members of Congress. The texts “obtained from multiple sources” sent before, during, and after the Jan. 6 insurrection pull back the curtain on behind-the-scenes Republican efforts to overturn 2020 election results. They also reveal the lengths to which Trump’s lieutenants would go to subvert the will of the people, the law, and the U.S. Constitution to install Trump the loser as president.
Maybe I missed something, but the TPM scoop is getting the Big Ignore from a lot of major news outlets. Not even to mention that they have not reviewed the texts themselves.
So determined was the insurrection caucus that their efforts persisted even after the Jan. 6 ransacking of the Capitol by the Tump mob. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) texted Meadows three days before Joe Biden’s inauguration pleading for Trump to call out the military to stop it (TPM):
The text, which has not previously been reported, is a particularly vivid example of how congressional opposition to Biden’s election was underpinned by paranoid and debunked conspiracy theories like those about Dominion voting machines. Norman’s text also showed the potentially violent lengths to which some congressional Republicans were willing to go in order to keep Trump in power. The log Meadows provided to the select committee does not include a response to Norman’s message.
Reached via cell phone on Monday morning, Norman asked TPM for a chance to review his messages before commenting.
“It’s been two years,” Norman said. “Send that text to me and I’ll take a look at it.”
TPM forwarded Norman a copy of the message calling for “Marshall Law!!” We did not receive any further response from the congressman.
A Dec. 30, 2020 text to Meadows from Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller identified Congressman Mo Brooks of Alabama (who wore body armor to the Ellipse rally) as the ringleader of the effort to block the Jan. 6 electoral vote count. Brooks confirmed to TPM that he took a leadership role. He focused on a bipartisan 2005 report co-authored by former President Jimmy Carter and James Baker III that, while suggesting “potential fraud,” found “no evidence of extensive fraud in U.S. elections.”
When pressed on conclusions from experts and from Trump-appointed officials that there was no significant fraud in the 2020 election, Brooks hung up the phone.
Based on the log, some of the election objectors saw themselves as participating in an epic battle. Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) sent at least 21 messages to Meadows and received at least four responses. On November 6, he dramatically urged Meadows to refuse to give up.
“Babin and his office did not respond,” TPM reports.
Based on Meadows’ text log, overheated battle cries began streaming into his phone as the votes were still being counted on Election Day, Nov. 3, 2020. Texts the committee identified as coming from members of Congress declared “our Trump team is kicking ass today” and “Fight until hell freezes over than fight them on the ice.”
On Nov. 4, 2020, the day after the election, Rep. Billy Long (R-MO) wrote Meadows claiming he was personally aware of two instances of alleged fraud where people voted twice in Nevada. Based on this claim, he urged Meadows to push for a review of the race in that key state.
“I know of at least 2 people who told me they mailed in their ballots and voted in person so you can tell them they might be interested in going over all votes in Nevada,” Long wrote.
“Ok,” Meadows replied.
Long did not respond to a request for comment.
No comment was a theme. Meadows had not responded to multiple requests for comment as of 3:31 p.m. Monday when the story went live.
Other members of Congress sent Meadows questionable legal theories and wildly undemocratic plans to have the vote overturned at the state level. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) pointed to a segment on the far-right cable network Newsmax where the political operative Dick Morris argued Republican state legislatures had the power to “declare” Trump the winner based on unproven allegations of fraud.
The text log does not include responses from Meadows to these texts from Babin, Cramer, and Green. Green’s communications director, Rachel del Guidice, provided a statement to TPM that suggested his ideas came from people in his district rather than the congressman himself.
“Congressman Green was passing along what constituents were sending him to keep the White House informed on the sentiments of his constituents,” del Guidice said. “He wasn’t advocating for any specific course of action.”
TPM founder Josh Marshall commented in a tweet thread (yes, he’s still there):
Once again, “Jordan and his office did not respond to a request for comment. “
There is plenty more, including a few curt replies from Meadows and a list of 34 members of Congress identified in the Meadows call log. How many actually participated beyond rash talk and electoral count hijinks in Trump’s failed insurrection is not yet evident.
We have yet to hear much about communications between the White House and players in the Willard Hotel “war room.” There is likely more opportunity for potential prosecution over the 2020 insurrection than there was “potential fraud.”
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