In his new book, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows offers up a version of Donald Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 that is almost comically sanitized. In his telling, the rioters attacked the Capitol with “absolutely no urging” from Trump, and the notion that Trump sought to incite them to disrupt his loss is purely an invention of the “Fake News.”
In a passage that would embarrass a North Korea disinformation specialist, Meadows writes that the mob assault left Trump “mortified.” But, Meadows piously insists, this didn’t distract Trump from focusing only on the welfare of the country in his final days as president, a noble and selfless impulse that “never wavered.”
The House select committee examining Jan. 6 has just released its report recommending contempt charges against Meadows for defying its subpoena. It blows a big hole in Meadows’s pleasing little propaganda piece.
More broadly, the report will render the various GOP whitewashing devices we’ve heard — Trump didn’t really want to overturn the election, Trump never countenanced the violence, the violence was no biggie anyway, and so on — much harder to sustain.
The report reads like a blueprint for a coup — not just for the attempt that just happened, but also for a future one. It provides a glimpse into the story the committee is piecing together about this effort to thwart a legitimately elected government from taking power, first through almost unimaginably corrupt pressure on many government actors, and then through mob violence.
What Meadows is covering up
First, the report demonstrates how frantically Meadows and Trump’s other co-conspirators are covering up Trump’s own reaction to the violence as it unfolded. It shows this by describing documents the committee obtained from Meadows before he decided to refuse cooperation.
For instance, the report notes that Meadows received “many messages” urging him to get Trump to issue a statement that might quell the attack. It also says Meadows was with Trump or nearby as Trump learned about it and weighed what to do in response.
Indeed, the report discloses that the committee has obtained a text message indicating that Meadows was “pushing hard” to “condemn this s--t,” meaning Meadows was urging Trump to publicly call off the rioters.
Here’s what this really means: Meadows almost certainly has direct knowledge of how Trump responded to all these repeated demands that he call off the violent assault. The report says the committee wants to question Meadows about this, but he’s refusing to answer any questions.
What is it that Meadows does not want to testify to?
Well, we know from press accounts, such as this Post report, that Trump watched the violent assault unfold on TV and ignored many frantic pleas that he step in. One Trump adviser told The Post that Trump was enjoying the spectacle of his followers fighting on his behalf.
We also know from CNN that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) apparently screamed similar pleas at Trump by phone as rioters tried to break into McCarthy’s office. McCarthy subsequently recounted that Trump responded: “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
Could it be that Meadows does not want to confirm these reports that Trump enjoyed the spectacle of the mob threatening extreme violence to lawmakers who were in process of making his loss official, and that Trump even treated their cause as a just one?
If so, it would of course make Meadows’s book account appear even more laughably dishonest. This also hints at what Meadows may be concealing from the committee investigating the worst outbreak of U.S. political violence in modern times, thus showing how malicious and depraved the coverup on Trump’s behalf has become.
A blueprint for a stolen election
Underscoring this point, the committee report discloses the existence of other documents it obtained from Meadows that deepen our understanding of the stolen election attempt.
For instance, the report says Meadows was on text and email chains that addressed efforts to get GOP legislators in some states to send alternate electors to Congress, potentially subverting Joe Biden’s electors.
Meadows apparently declared his “love” for this scheme and wanted a “team” devoted to it. Relatedly, Meadows also appears to have pushed the idea that the vice president could subvert those electors.
What’s more, the report says, Meadows sent emails urging the Justice Department to investigate claims of voter fraud, which would validate the idea that the election’s outcome was dubious. (There’s also some suggestion that people around Trump talked about sending in the National Guard to “protect pro-Trump people,” but this is very vague.)
You can see how all this fits together: The Justice Department would manufacture the impression that Biden’s win was dubious — through investigations and public statements, which Trump also pushed for — and this would create the pretext for invalidating Biden’s electors in Congress.
This would be accomplished by getting Republicans in Congress to invalidate them, or by getting Trump’s vice president to abuse his power to delay the count, allowing states to send rogue electors, per the plot outlined in the now-notorious coup memo.
The whole coup blueprint is right there in black and white. And so is the scope and reach of what Meadows and others stonewalling the Jan. 6 committee are so eager to cover up. But we’ve now learned the committee has extensive receipts, and soon enough, we’ll see all of them.
