Lawmaker Privately Proposed Stealing Election Before It Was Even Called, Jan. 6 Panel Reveals

(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A lawmaker proposed to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows a brazenly anti-democratic plot to throw the 2020 election to Donald Trump — even before the race had been called for Joe Biden, records of Meadows’ texts described by the Jan. 6 Committee on Tuesday reveal.

Just one day after Election Day, the committee said, an unidentified member of Congress texted Meadows on Nov. 4 suggesting that the Republican-controlled state legislatures of Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania (none of which had been called at that point) plus other GOP-controlled states just unilaterally throw away Biden electors and replace them with their own.

“HERE’s an AGGRESSIVE STRATEGY: Why can t [sic] the states of GA NC PENN and other R controlled state houses declare this is BS (where conflicts and election not called that night) and just send their own electors to vote and have it go to the SCOTUS,” the lawmaker wrote, according to texts the House Jan. 6 select committee released on Tuesday.

Biden was not officially projected to be the winner of the election until November 7.

Committee members read Meadows’ texts aloud and displayed blown up images of them during the House’s debate Tuesday over whether to send the panel’s criminal contempt referral against Meadows to the Justice Department. The House ultimately voted to do so.

The committee did not identify the name of the lawmaker.

The panel members also released texts on Tuesday revealing the ex-White House official’s involvement with Trump’s infamous call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the Jeffrey Clark scheme.

The panel began publicizing Meadows’ bombshell texts, which the former official had turned over voluntarily before deciding to defy the committee’s subpoena, on Monday. The first tranche of the messages showed Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Brian Kilmeade frantically texting Meadows begging for Trump to take action as the Capitol insurrection was unfolding. Don Jr., Trump’s eldest son, had also texted Meadows that day saying that his father has “got to condemn this shit asap.” “It has gone too far and gotten out of hand,” he wrote.

All four of them would later go on to publicly claim Trump wasn’t at fault, downplay the insurrection and baselessly suggested the attack was carried out by Trump’s political enemies.

There was another text released on Monday that, similar to the “AGGRESSIVE STRATEGY” proposal message, revealed how certain members of Congress had joined Trump behind the scenes in his attempts to steal the election: “Yesterday was a terrible day. We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry nothing worked,” an unnamed lawmaker wrote to Meadows the day after the insurrection.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Their contempt for the very concept of democracy is stunning. And it’s all of them except Cheney and Kinzinger (who’s been chased from the cult).

  2. As the list of “usual suspects” grows by texts and tweets.

  3. Pasting this, just cuz it’s interesting, and maybe forecasts how things could go:

  4. Who? Exactly who is the member of congress who wrote that text message?

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

226 more replies

Participants

Avatar for josephebacon Avatar for zandru Avatar for eggrollian Avatar for jimtoday Avatar for sniffit Avatar for christianhankel Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for lastroth Avatar for donnyyoung Avatar for darcy Avatar for fiftygigs Avatar for darrtown Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for jinnj Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for timorwig Avatar for zenicetus Avatar for trustywoods Avatar for rockitttla Avatar for kovie Avatar for carpe_diem Avatar for Fire_Joni_Ernst Avatar for john_adams Avatar for Pluckingenius

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: