Topline
Several ardent supporters of former President Donald Trump, including his son Donald Trump Jr., and Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) urged the president to take more steps to quell violence on January 6, even as many continued to push conspiracy theories about election fraud and advocated for efforts to overturn results, according to thousands of text messages sent and received by Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and obtained by CNN.
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows speaks to members of the press outside the White … [+]
Key Facts
The texts, which hadn’t been seen before and were sent to the Jan. 6 committee before Meadows decided to stop cooperating with the panel, include 2,319 messages the former White House chief of staff exchanged with a host of the president’s supporters, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Fox News Host Sean Hannity, between Election Day 2020 and President Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, CNN reported.
The texts show several in Trump’s inner circle urging the president to call for an end to violence as his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, including his son, Donald Trump Jr., who told Meadows Trump should “condem (sic) this shit. Asap,” arguing Trump’s tweet calling for support for Capitol police was “not enough.”
The text conversations also show how Trump’s inner circle pushed strategies to overturn the election results in the weeks after Election Day, including Jordan, who argued former Vice President Mike Pence on January 6 should discount “all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional.”
Greene also told Meadows after January 6 that several lawmakers in private discussions were pushing for Trump to declare martial law after he lost the election, according to the texts.
Meadows, meanwhile, frequently did not appear to respond to the texts or only offered short replies, although the logs could have been incomplete, CNN reported.
Tangent
Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller offered two suggestions for the president to tweet after his supporters stormed the Capitol in a message sent to meadows, according to CNN. In the first, Miller suggested the president say that “Bad apples, likely ANTIFA or other crazed leftists” infiltrated the “peaceful protest over the fraudulent vote count.” In another, he suggested accusing the “fake news media” of blaming “peaceful and innocent MAGA supporters” for the violent actions. “Our people should head home and let the criminals suffer the consequences!” Miller added in the tweet suggestion. The FBI has said there is “no indication” that Antifa played a role in the violent protests, and evidence has shown protestors were overwhelmingly Trump supporters.
Key Background
The new messages come two weeks after CNN obtained a host of texts sent by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) to Meadows urging the Trump team to fight to overturn the election. The 2,319 texts reported by CNN this week offer an even larger picture of the flood of text messages Meadows received from Trump supporters and those in the president’s inner circle in the weeks following election day pushing fraud conspiracy theories and advocating strategies to overturn the results. Meadows first provided the texts to the House committee tasked with investigating the January 6 insurrection in December 2021. But shortly after, he refused to appear for a deposition, leading the House to vote to hold him in contempt of Congress. A federal judge last month ruled Trump’s efforts to overturn the election “more likely than not” amounted to felony obstruction in a ruling allowing the January 6 committee to review emails from former Trump legal advisor John Eastman.
Further Reading
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelinehalpert/2022/04/25/mark-meadows-texts-reportedly-show-trump-allies-urging-president-to-calm-rioters-on-january-6-after-pushing-efforts-to-overturn-results/