Opinion: What the new Mark Meadows text messages reveal

It’s interesting to see that Roy privately acknowledged the dangers of what Trump was trying to do as early as November 9. He texted, “We must urge the President 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 theory.” Trump, of course, did exactly that.

Eventually, both men issued warnings to Meadows after it was clear Trump was aiming to have states send alternative slates of electors to Congress. On January 1, Roy wrote, “If POTUS allows this to occur … we’re driving a stake in the heart of the federal republic.” Two days later, Lee wrote, “I only know that this will end badly for the President unless we have the Constitution on our side.” He went on to add it could “all backfire badly.”

The private correspondence uncovered by the committee adds another layer to understanding the effort to undermine the election, which was, in large part, conducted in broad daylight. Trump started pushing lies of voter fraud in the spring of 2020, and there were plenty of journalists sounding the alarm. Barton Gellman, for example, wrote a piece published in the Atlantic in November 2020 mapping out ways the election could “break America.”

On election night, as the votes were still being counted, Trump laid it all out for the public to see when he held a stunning press conference where he claimed victory and alleged states were counting illegitimate ballots. “We’ll be going to the US Supreme Court,” he said. “We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning … and add them to the list.”

The nation watched as the former president’s legal team continued challenging the legitimacy of the election, only to be rejected by the courts. Despite the absence of fraud, many of Trump’s supporters in Congress didn’t call for the president to stop. Even after the Electoral College met and voted on December 14 to confirm Joe Biden’s victory, the “stop the steal” campaign didn’t end.

Anyone could watch Trump’s remarks on television, read his Twitter feed, or tune into the comments of prominent Republicans to see the effort was intensifying. On December 14, Forbes reported the plot to get alternative electors, assembled by the Trump campaign team in battleground states, to vote for him. And on Fox and Friends, White House advisor Stephen Miller said, “As we speak today, an alternative slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote, and we’re going to send those results up to Congress.”

Even as Senator Mitch McConnell reportedly told Republicans they needed to accept the results on December 15, legislators like Mo Brooks of Alabama publicly stated their refusal to do so. “I find it unfathomable that anyone would acquiesce to election theft and voter fraud because they lack the courage to take a difficult vote on the House or Senate floor,” the congressman said in an interview. Senator Ted Cruz and a number of Republican lawmakers released a statement ahead of January 6 challenging the validity of the election and announcing their intention to object to the certification of the electoral votes, even as their colleagues like Lee and Roy were privately urging the administration to stop.

And the blistering speeches that took place by the Ellipse in the early afternoon of January 6, before the attack on Congress took place were all out in the open for Americans to see. “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump told the crowd.

The findings from the select committee are extraordinarily important and the investigation is vital to ensuring that the leaders of our democracy are held accountable. Without congressional committees or the Department of Justice exercising this kind of vigilance, power can never be checked and restrained. We need to fully understand how the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol unfolded —and whether there is a basis for criminal charges.

Equally important right now is where every politician stands on what happened that day. As the midterms approach, each new text is a reminder that every senator and representative must be pressed to go on the record to make a firm and clear statement about where they stand when it comes to the leader of the nation attacking the legitimacy of a settled election.

The select committee is doing vital work. Without accountability, democracy withers on the vine. The extraordinary events surrounding January 6 revealed that strong guardrails are no longer in place.