Donald Trump Jr. messages reveal ideas of insurrection 2:08
(CNN) --
The most chilling takeaway from a new series of text messages showing how former President Donald Trump's inner circle plotted to steal the 2020 election isn't the delusional fervor of their plan or the casual way the co-conspirators pushed back. the legitimate will of the American people.
It's not even the hypocrisy of key Trump supporters who in some cases were disgusted and scared by the US Capitol insurrection and knew it was wrong, but have since tried to cover up the former president's culpability in the attack.
The most alarming revelation of the 2,319 text messages sent and received by former White House Secretary General Mark Meadows, which were reported exclusively by CNN on Monday, is that that same authoritarian broth is already poisoning another election, the midterms. November 2022, with the lie that Trump won the elections in 2020.
Just this weekend, the falsehood of widespread voter fraud, which led to the terrifying assault by Trump supporters on Capitol Hill, defined the Republican primary battles in Michigan and Georgia.
It's working across the country in other races, too, fueled by Trump's determination to turn the midterms into a theater of revenge and a platform to regain power in 2024.
The texts — which were sent by members of Congress, key GOP figures, Fox hosts and even Trump's family — also raise a troubling question.
It is possible, if not likely, that many of those involved may soon have real political power if the GOP successfully capitalizes on President Joe Biden's unpopularity and wins seats in Congress, as is the historical norm for the party outside the House. White.
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And the messages underscore how the most important divide in modern politics is not the age-old struggle between liberalism and conservatism, a legitimate ideological duel over the meaning and direction of America.
Instead, the great struggle of the early 21st century is between those in the Republican Party who are prepared to reject democracy and everyone else.
CNN Exclusive: What Meadows' text messages reveal about how two Trump allies pressured the White House to overturn the election
Mark Meadows no longer wants to appear against Trump 1:22
What the Meadows text messages say
Text messages sent or received by Meadows between Election Day 2020 and Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021 were obtained and reported by CNN's Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb and Elizabeth Stuart.
They show how Trump's most ardent and deranged supporters desperately sought to overturn a free and fair election, indulged in absurd fantasies about voter fraud that didn't happen, and conspired to deny Biden his presidency.
Meadows turned the texts over to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection before ceasing to cooperate with the panel.
Apart from everything else, they show a White House secretary general facilitating an attack on democracy rather than acting on any conventional and accepted definition of that critical government position.
In one of the most notable texts, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told Meadows just three days before Biden was sworn in that some Republicans still wanted the then-president to declare martial law.
Testifying under oath last week, before these texts were revealed, the high-profile Trump supporter said she couldn't recall any such sentiments.
She has been among many House Republicans who denied the truth of the insurrection and who have tried to impede efforts to find the truth.
But on Jan. 6, the texts show, Greene was among the Republicans who pleaded with Meadows to get Trump to calm down marauding supporters of his, who made their way to Capitol Hill.
Another set of texts shows Trump supporters suggesting ways to blame their supporters' violence on Antifa activists.
They show the Trump administration's Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry, and Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., exchanging ideas to overturn Trump's electoral loss.
And the material offers evidence of Meadows' role in coordinating efforts to overturn the results in multiple states.
ANALYSIS |
The dirty little secret that Mark Meadows texts reveal
Meadows endorsed Trump's lie about insurrection 2:21
New questions for the January 6 commission
The texts also suggest that the commission's final report, following public hearings expected in a few weeks, will paint a devastating picture of Trump's efforts to subvert the election and cling to power.
But while they are impressive to read, they are unlikely to resolve the most vital emerging question about the House committee's work.
As damning as the findings are, likely to leave a valuable legacy, will anyone face real responsibility for the worst attack on American democracy in modern history?
The commission itself has no power to impose consequences.
And it has not yet been decided whether to send a criminal reference of the former president or his alleged accomplices to the Department of Justice.
The House voted to refer the commission's criminal contempt citations against Meadows and former Trump White House aides Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro to the Justice Department.
Another Trump aide, Steve Bannon, faces trial later this year after a similar referral.
Still, the idea that Attorney General Merrick Garland decided there was a sufficient probability of a conviction to impeach Trump seems far-fetched to many legal and political observers.
And if Republicans, as expected, take back the House in November, the select committee is sure to be swept away by some of the same Trump loyalists whose cover-up of the insurrection it has been investigating.
For many Americans, struggling with high inflation that has spiked prices for basic goods and gasoline, the question of accountability for the Jan. 6 insurrection may seem retrospective more than a year later.
And despite the myth about a stolen election dominating Republican primary matchups, many November elections may hinge primarily on the inability of Biden and the Democrats to project a winning narrative, despite the fact that the economy is improving in many aspects.
But it is becoming increasingly clear that the lack of consequences for those who helped Trump in his nefarious attempt to steal a legitimate election is having a dangerous effect by emboldening new attacks on democracy.
The central national tenet that the people have the right to choose their leaders, not a ragtag band of conspirators and power-hungry supporters of one strongman, seems more threatened than ever.
Multiple GOP primary campaigns are rooted in the lie that Trump won the 2020 election. The former president is wielding his considerable power in the party to promote candidates who deny the truth.
And he also seeks to take advantage of supporters who promote the falsehood that there was massive fraud in 2020 in key state positions that administer elections.
In his first gubernatorial debate in Georgia this weekend, for example, former Sen. David Perdue, who became a Trump acolyte in his quest for power, attacked Gov. Brian Kemp, who refused to help the former president's attempt to nullify Biden's victory in that state.
"The 2020 election was rigged and stolen," Perdue said in his opening statement Sunday, addressing a topic he returned to frequently.
And in Michigan this weekend, Kristina Karamo, who promoted lies about a stolen 2020 election and is endorsed by Trump, won the state GOP endorsement for secretary of state.
If she wins the election in November, she will be in charge of running the next presidential election in that state.
The Trump-backed candidate also won the state party's nod for state attorney general.
Similar stories of pro-Trump election plotters are playing out in Colorado, Arizona and elsewhere.
It's too early to say whether such campaigns will electrify the conservative base at the expense of more moderate voters, which could backfire on the GOP.
But it is already obvious that the deceptive battle to steal power, echoed in Meadows' texts, still threatens the right of American voters to choose their own leaders.
Assault on Capitol Mark Meadows
