Mark Meadows Home-State Paper Calls His Text Messages 'Threat to Democracy'

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was heavily criticized by his home-state paper, The Charlotte Observer, over his texts about alleged efforts last year to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

In an article published by the editorial board on Thursday, the North Carolina paper suggested that even though Meadows no longer serves within a public office capacity, the threat to democracy is still ongoing.

"Meadows' texts reveal that many Republicans were not merely complicit—they were willing soldiers in Trump's bogus battles. Of everything we've learned since Jan. 6, the primary takeaway is this: these threats to democracy will not go away on their own. They are sitting in the highest levels of government, and as long as they remain there, the danger does, too," the editorial board wrote.

The Charlotte Observer pointed out that Republicans should be "worried" about Meadows' texts instead of the "Twitter Files", a series of records that were recently posted by independent journalist Matt Taibbi, showing Twitter's content moderation and control policies.

Meadows has turned over more than 2,000 text messages to the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol Building. Those texts included conversations with some Republican lawmakers who were allegedly involved in the efforts to block the certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory.

"The more than 2,300 texts detail the extent to which Donald Trump's allies floated conspiracy theories, absurd legal tactics and even violence. As Trump's chief of staff, Meadows was at the center of these discussions, communicating with members of Congress, state officials and far-right activists, according to Talking Points Memo," The Charlotte Observer said. "In total, 34 Republican members of Congress appear in the texts—four of whom, like Meadows, hail from North Carolina."

The paper went on to name a number of Republicans who were conversing with Meadows at the time and touting Trump's baseless claims of a 2020 presidential election fraud, including North Carolina Representatives Greg Murphy and Ted Budd.

The paper pointed out that Murphy sent Meadows an article from a "far-right" website suggesting that Republican state legislatures can declare Trump as the winner in their states. "Why are we not pursuing this theory?" Murphy wrote to Meadows.

Meanwhile, Budd sent a message to Meadows in 2020 claiming that there were connections between Dominion Voting Systems and billionaire George Soros, according to the Talking Points Memo, which the Charlotte Observer's editorial board called "a ridiculous yet persistent conspiracy theory."

"For Meadows and others like him, the law seems to be merely a suggestion—a pesky hurdle on the road to getting what they want. In this case, what they wanted was to subvert the will of millions of American voters, and they very nearly succeeded," the board said. "Such behavior is dishonorable. It is unpatriotic. It reflects an utter contempt for democracy, for the rule of law and especially for the Constitution—something that every single member of Congress took an oath to uphold. It remains to be seen, however, whether they will suffer any consequences for conspiring against their country."

The paper continued: "Anyone who is willing to even entertain the thought of overturning an election does not belong in Congress, or any public office. While Meadows may no longer be serving in any public capacity, many of those who exchanged texts with him remain in Congress."

Newsweek reached out to Conservative Partnership Institute in which Meadows is a senior partner and his attorney's office for comment.