Republicans don't really buy 'stolen election' lies — even ones who demanded 'Marshall Law': former DOJ official

A cache of text messages from Mark Meadows between the 2020 election and through the Jan. 6 attack on Congress revealed at least 34 conversations with members of Congress. At least one of those revealed Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) telling Meadows that the only way Trump could maintain power was to declare martial law.

But did Norman sincerely believe that Trump had won the 2020 election?

Mary McCord, who served as the acting assistant attorney general for National Security at the Department of Justice from 2016 to 2017, told MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday that she doesn't really think that members of Congress are true believers about the election being some kind of fraud.

"These are people who have — remember — sworn an oath to the Constitution," she said. "There was no significant evidence of election fraud. More than 60 courts had dismissed out of hand baseless claims of election fraud. Even though there was lots of talk by people like Rudy Giuliani and Cleta Mitchell and others, they never produced evidence. Seeing these texts today seemed more like Congress members who were more interested in basically preserving their party's rule in the upcoming Congress and doing whatever it takes to do so. Which again is shameful when we're talking about really just throwing the Constitution out. Throwing the procedures and processes for presidential transfers of power that this country that been through for centuries now, just casting it aside."

She noted that, in terms of their consciousness of guilt, "they wouldn't be asking for pardons if they hadn't done something wrong." She explained that she's simply not as charitable about the "true beliefs" of members of Congress as mothers might be.

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