Text messages sent to Mark Meadows, then President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, reveal that GOP stalwarts Mike Lee, a Senator from Utah, and Chip Roy, an influential House member from Texas, initially supported then steadily soured on the effort to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
CNN obtained the texts and reported on their contents Friday morning.
On November 7th, just four days after the election, Lee texted Meadows to express his “unequivocal support for you to exhaust every legal and constitutional remedy at your disposal to restore Americans faith in our elections.”
“The nation is depending upon your continued resolve. Stay strong and keep fighting Mr. President,” Lee wrote.
On that same day, Roy, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, texted Meadows that Trump supporters in Congress need evidence to bolster their claims of election fraud. “We need ammo. We need fraud examples. We need it this weekend,” he wrote.
Days later, Lee encouraged Meadows to seek the legal council of Sydney Powell, the bombastic lawyer who would eventually present unhinged conspiracy theories as unconvincing proof that the election was stolen from Trump. Lee called her a “straight shooter.”
“Apparently she has a strategy to keep things alive and put several states back in play. Can you help get her in?” Lee asked Meadows in an apparent reference to get Powell access to the White House.
Meanwhile, Roy urged Meadows to get Trump to “tone down the rhetoric and approach the legal challenge firmly, intelligently and effectively without resorting to throwing wild desperate haymakers or whipping his base into a conspiracy frenzy.”
After Rudy Giuliani and Powell held a bizarre November 19th press conference that laid out a series of wildly false claims, Roy again issued a warning to Meadows.
“Hey brother – we need substance or people are going to break,” he wrote.
Lee also expressed dismay at the presser, telling Meadows “The potential defamation liability for the president is significant here. For the campaign and for the president personally. Unless Powell can back up everything she said, which I kind of doubt she can.”
Meadows responded, “I agree. Very concerned.”
As Trump’s lawyers continued to present unsubstantiated claims throughout December, Roy texted Meadows that “Frigging rudy needs to hush.” He and Lee recommended that Meadows consult with lawyer John Eastman, who would eventually pen a specious legal justification for the overthrow of the 2020 election.
CNN continues:
By December, both Republican lawmakers express grave concerns to Meadows about the plan to challenge the certification of the election on January 6.
On December 16, Lee asked Meadows for guidance: “If you want senators to object, we need to hear from you on that ideally getting some guidance on what arguments to raise.
“I think we’re now passed the point where we can expect anyone will do it without some direction and a strong evidentiary argument.”
On December 31 Roy expressed even more concern in a text to Meadows.
“The president should call everyone off. It’s the only path. If we substitute the will of states through electors with a vote by congress every 4 years… we have destroyed the electoral college… Respectfully,” Roy wrote.
By January 3rd, Lee’s break with Trump’s efforts was apparent. He texted Meadows, “I only know that this will end badly for the President unless we have the Constitution on our side. And unless these states submit new slates of Trump electors pursuant to state law, we do not.”
Lee was referring to a movement – spearheaded by Giuliani – to get pro-Trump lawmakers in swing states that broke for Biden to send Congress fake certificates attesting to Trump’s win. The plan did not work.
CNN provides additional context:
While Lee and Roy both voted to certify the electoral results in favor of Biden, more than 100 of their GOP colleagues in both the House and Senate did not. Chief among them were Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, both of whom Lee called out in his texts to Meadows.
“I have grave concerns with the way my friend Ted is going about this effort,” Lee wrote to Meadows. “This will not inure to the benefit of the president.”
Lee added that unless new, competing slates of electors were put forward in accordance with state law, the net effect “could help people like Ted and Josh to the detriment of DJT.”
During the Capitol riot, Roy sent another text to Meadows.
“This is a sh*tshow,” he wrote. “Fix this now.”
