The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection now has more than 100 text messages between Congressman Chip Roy of Texas and Senator Mike Lee of Utah to former President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the days after the 2020 election.
The text messages, obtained by CNN, show some of Trump’s most ardent supporters encouraging an overturn of the 2020 election, then warning against the consequences in the days before the Capitol riot.
In one Nov. 7 text from Chip Roy to Mark Meadows, Roy said, “If you’re still in the game… dude, we need ammo. We need fraud examples. We need it this weekend.”
When it was clear that those voter fraud examples weren’t coming, Roy said on Nov. 19, “Hey brother - we need substance or people are going to break.”
In the following weeks, Roy texted Meadows about specifics in cases the Trump administration was arguing in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin – all of which failed.
By New Year’s Eve, Roy’s tone had changed. In a Dec. 31 text, Roy said to Meadows, “The President should call everyone off. 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.”
And by Jan. 6, Roy was one of the many GOP members furiously texting Meadows, “This is a sh*tshow” and “fix this now,” according to CNN.
Eventually, Roy went on to call Trump out on the House floor that night.
“Madam speaker, today the people's house was attacked – which is an attack on the republic itself. There is no excuse for it. A woman died. And people need to go to jail,” Roy said on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. “And the President should have never spun up certain Americans to believe something that simply cannot be.”
In a tweet Friday Roy said, "No apologies for my private texts or public positions - to those on the left or right. I stand behind seeking truth, fighting nonsense, & then acting in defense of the Constitution.”
