What are they hiding?
Another day, another roadblock in the House Select Committee’s investigation of the January 6 insurrection. Never have so many “innocent” people tried to hide information from an investigative body in the history of the world. Thanks to Liz Cheney, we now know that Mark Meadows has plenty to hide, explaining his ridiculous claim of privilege. Washington Post reported on Cheney reading Meadows’s text messages aloud. Meadows received text messages from several Fox show hosts, as well as Donald Trump, Jr., imploring him to get “president” Donald Trump to act. This tells us what we already know: Trump was responsible for the attack on the Capitol, he knew it, and he enjoyed every moment of it.
Trump’s refusal to act on January 6 signaled to his supporters that their behavior was acceptable and that he supported their efforts. His allies begged him to put a stop to it. Laura Ingraham went on air to proclaim that Trump was hurting his “legacy,” but the insurrection was Trump’s legacy. He did nothing but create turmoil and unrest in this country, and it was a fitting end to his “presidency.” Ingraham tried to clean things up by claiming many of the people involved were “antithetical to the MAGA movement” and that “there were reports that Antifa sympathizers may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd.” That notion was debunked early on, and the people who invaded the capital were not antithetical to MAGA, they are MAGA and all it represents.
Another host who texted Meadows was Sean Hannity, who understood the ramifications of that day. Yet, according to Washington Post, he had Meadows on his show and refused to confront him about Trump’s non-actions. Instead, he allowed him to claim that Trump “acted quickly” on January 6 when everyone knows better. Why all the insistent text messages to Meadows if Trump was “acting quickly?” Trump’s own son sent multiple texts to Meadows: “We need an Oval Office address. He has to lead now.” Oh, please. Trump has never led anything other than a company into bankruptcy. As the violence continued, Donald, Jr. texted Meadows again: “He’s got to condemn this shit ASAP.” In other words, all of Trump’s defenders were just as worried about what was happening that day as the rest of us.
Meadows now wants to claim executive privilege after he turned over more than 6,600 pages, which included his personal email and text messages. Meadows is obviously not very bright. He likely realized later that turning over further documents would merely reenforce the damning nature of the personal documents he had already given, and he is trying to stop the bleeding. It is far too late for that. He is now facing contempt charges that need to stick. It is unfathomable that people like Meadows are holding onto documents that clearly show Trump’s behavior that day for what it was; his attempts to stay in power after losing a fair election showed just how much he thumbed his nose at democracy. Now, these people are trying to protect him at all costs, including an apparent willing to sacrifice their own freedom.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years