The Jan. 6 House select committee made waves Monday night after revealing a slew of text messages sent to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the Capitol riot, urging him to convince then-President Donald Trump to denounce the attack. Everyone from lawmakers, Fox News hosts, and journalists sent missives to Meadows, who had turned over to the committee thousands of emails and messages before abruptly reversing course and refusing to cooperate.
On Tuesday, committee member Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) read aloud a few more of the texts Meadows received that fateful day, these from GOP lawmakers who were writing things like "it is really bad up here on the Hill" and "fix this now." On Monday, the committee voted to recommend holding Meadows in contempt of Congress after he stopped cooperating.
"We as Republicans used to be unified ... in terms of what happened on January 6, and the responsibility the president had to stop it," Cheney added while speaking on Tuesday. "We all remember, every one of us, what Republican leader [Kevin McCarthy] said on the floor of the House the following week: 'The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters.'"
As far as a crime Trump may have committed on Jan. 6, Cheney on both Monday and Tuesday alluded to one, The Washington Post reports. When summing up the texts she shared Monday night, Cheney asked, "Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress's official proceeding to count electoral votes?"
In doing so, she pointed to a "specific criminal statute" that "she suggests [Trump] might have violated," writes the Post. She cited that same statute again on Tuesday morning. Read more at The Washington Post.