Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced on Tuesday that he expects there will be action on the Electoral Count Act reform before the new Congress takes over in January.
The Democratic leader said he anticipates the end-of-year omnibus spending bill that’s currently being negotiated will include reform on the outdated 1887 law — which lays out how presidential electors are counted in Congress.
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler
Indulge me at least one more day of poring through our coverage of the Meadows Texts, which have crossed the barrier between politics and pop culture. Late night talk show treatment? Here we go.
“Plotting against the rule of law and to subvert the will of the people is a disgusting affront to our deepest principles as a country,” Deputy White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates told TPM. “We all, regardless of party, need to stand up for mainstream values and the Constitution, against dangerous, ultra MAGA conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric.”
Responding to the Meadows Texts, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) told The State newspaper that he called for “Marshall Law” out of “frustration” and took the opportunity to spell “martial law” correctly:
“Obviously, Martial Law was never warranted,” Norman said. “That text message came from a source of frustration, on the heels of countless unanswered questions about the integrity of the 2020 election, without any way to slow down and examine those issues prior to the inauguration of the newly elected president.”
The Justice Department has tried to gain access to Republican Rep. Scott Perry’s text messages as part of a criminal investigation into 2020 election interference, facing off with his lawyers in a secret court proceeding after seizing his phone, CNN observed at the courthouse and sources familiar with the investigation said.
All Politics Is Local
Local outlets picked up on the involvement of area members of Congress:
Alabama: “Mo Brooks reportedly described as ‘ringleader’ of effort to overturn election in Mark Meadows texts”
North Carolina: “In the latest disclosure, the website Talking Points Memo obtained some 450 texts between Meadows and Republican members of Congress — including Reps. Ted Budd and Greg Murphy of North Carolina — and published many on Monday.”
South Carolina: “SC’s Ralph Norman faces calls to resign over martial law text message to Mark Meadows”
Tennessee: “Rep. Mark Green Messaged Mark Meadows About Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election”
Pennsylvania: “Report: Meadows’ Texts Show Perry, Keller, Kelly Efforts To Reverse Trump 2020 Defeat”
TPM On TV
It was a full day of TV hits by your favorite TPMers on the Meadows Texts.
Hunter Walker led off Morning Joe:
Josh Kovensky on Deadline: White House with Nicole Wallace:
Wonkette: If You Have 1,000 Extra Hours, TPM Is Publishing All Mark Meadows’s Dirty Naughty Coup-Plotting Sexts
Oh boy. Howard Kurtz gives the TPM series the Fox News gloss.
We Busted Through The Politics-Pop Culture Barrier
Jimmy Kimmel included the Meadows Texts in his opening monologue: “Thank God this coup wasn’t planned by people who could solve the Wordle. We’d all be in a lot of trouble right now.”
So did Stephen Colbert: “These members of Congress communicating with Meadows were — and it’s not my place to editorialize — stupid, evil traitors who were trying to do crimes against democracy, for which they should be punished with decades of jail time.”
Climate Change In The Arctic
The Washington Post has a good summary of the federal government’s 2022 Arctic Report Card, which finds that the past seven years in the Arctic have been the hottest seven years since 1900:
Fires and heat waves lengthen summer conditions
Rain is replacing snow
Low sea ice is affecting human activity
Hawaii Volcanoes Cease Eruptions
After a spectacular few weeks of dueling eruptions between Mauna Loa and Kilauea, the USGS announced Tuesday that eruptive activity at both volcanoes had stopped.
Yes, you saw it right — alert levels for BOTH Mauna Loa and Kīlauea were lowered this morning. Neither volcano is erupting right now, and gas emissions are at near-background levels, although HVO volcanologists remain vigilant for changes that might indicate renewed activity. pic.twitter.com/3m4SfZY3nw
The text messages Mark Meadows turned over to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack show how frantically former President Trump and his allies worked to reverse the results in the 2020 election. They also reveal how many members of Congress and other political allies were part of this chaotic push to overturn Trump’s loss. And, in at least four cases, the text messages show political allies explicitly mixed requests for presidential pardons with help on the election efforts that were so important to Trump.
The White House responded Tuesday to TPM’s reporting that Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) called for then-President Donald Trump to impose martial law in the final days of his presidency.
It was Nov. 5, 2020. Votes were still being counted in the presidential race, but it was looking increasingly grim for President Donald Trump. Mark Meadows, Trump’s White House chief of staff, had an idea to turn things around.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R) of South Carolina tells local press that his January 17th, 2021 call to place the United States under martial law to keep Trump in office — first reported yesterday by TPM — came from “frustration.”
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), whose Jan. 17, 2021 text to then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows called for Donald Trump to invoke “Marshall Law,” has responded to the revelations.
“Obviously, Martial Law was never warranted,” Norman said in a statement to local South Carolina outlet The State. “That text message came from a source of frustration, on the heels of countless unanswered questions about the integrity of the 2020 election, without any way to slow down and examine those issues prior to the inauguration of the newly elected president.”
TPM first reported Norman’s January text on Monday.
Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) is not one of the better-known figures in the extended universe of former President Trump’s political allies. However, based on text messages obtained by TPM, Allen is one of the members of Congress who worked most aggressively behind the scenes to reverse Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. Allen’s attempts to challenge the vote included passing unproven YouTube conspiracy videos from Romania to the White House and pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state. At least one of the paranoid election theories Allen texted to Meadows made its way directly to Trump.
