Two Republican lawmakers grew increasingly concerned with the Trump White House’s push to challenge the 2020 election, weeks after initially supporting the move, newly revealed texts reportedly show.
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, both of whom voted to certify the election in favor of President Biden on Jan. 6, 2021, repeatedly pressed then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for concrete evidence and voiced concern over Mr. Trump’s legal strategy to overturn the results, before finally breaking with the president.
“The president should call everyone off,” Mr. Roy wrote to Mr. Meadows in late December. “It’s the only path. If we substitute the will of states through electors with a vote by congress every 4 years… we have destroyed the electoral college… Respectfully.”
The texts, which CNN obtained and first reported on Friday, were among a trove of evidence turned over to the House Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
As the texts reportedly show, both lawmakers initially supported moves to challenge the election.
In a Nov. 7, 2020, text to Mr. Meadows, Mr. Lee offers “unequivocal support for you to exhaust every legal and constitutional remedy at your disposal to restore Americans’ faith in our elections.”
Mr. Lee also encouraged Mr. Meadows to grant lawyer Sidney Powell a meeting with Mr. Trump to discuss legal strategy for challenging the election.
“Sydney Powell is saying that she needs to get in to see the president, but she’s being kept away from him,” Mr. Lee wrote to Mr. Meadows on November 7. “Apparently she has a strategy to keep things alive and put several states back in play. Can you help get her in?”
That same day, Mr. Roy urged Mr. Meadows to produce “ammo” supporting Mr. Trump’s claims that the election was illegitimate.
“We need fraud examples,” he said. “We need it this weekend.”
Mr. Lee’s spokesperson told CNN that the senator has been “fully transparent,” and highlighted Mr. Lee’s push for an investigation into the election fraud claims.
Mr. Roy’s spokesperson told CNN that the text messages “speak for themselves.”
Mr. Meadows’ lawyer did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
The texts show that Mr. Roy soon began raising concerns about Mr. Trump’s approach.
“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 frenzy,” he texted Mr. Meadows on Nov. 9, 2020.
Ten days later, Mr. Roy grew more alarmed following a Nov. 19, 2020, press conference in which lawyers Ms. Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis laid out a series of voter-fraud allegations.
Mr. Roy said the team needed to present more “substance” or else, he said, “people are going to break,” in a message to Mr. Meadows hours after the press conference.
Mr. Lee also raised concerns on the same day, warning Mr. Meadows that “the potential defamation liability for the president is significant,” following the press conference.
“Unless Powell can back up everything she said, which I kind of doubt she can,” Mr. Lee wrote.
Mr. Meadows responded that he, too, was “very concerned.”
Both lawmakers later that month began promoting lawyer John Eastman to represent Mr. Trump.
Mr. Roy pressed Mr. Meadows on Nov. 22, 2020, to have Mr. Eastman “file in front of the pa board of elections,” referring to Pennsylvania.
“Get data in front of public domain,” he said.
But over the following month and in the days leading up to the certification on Jan. 6, 2021, both lawmakers walked back their support for the White House push to challenge the election.
On Jan. 3, Mr. Lee pushed back on the legal team’s push to send “alternate electors” from swing states to Congress to submit rival Electoral College certificates in favor of Mr. Trump.
“I only know that this will end badly for the President unless we have the Constitution on our side,” he texted Mr. Meadows.
Mr. Lee also expressed “grave concern” over his Senate colleagues’ push to oppose the election certification.
“I have grave concerns with the way my friend Ted is going about this effort,” Mr. Lee wrote, referring to Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican. “This will not inure to the benefit of the president.”
Both lawmakers voted to certify the election for Mr. Biden on Jan. 6, and in a speech on the House floor, Mr. Roy criticized Mr. Trump for having “spun up certain Americans to believe something that simply cannot be.”
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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