Former White House insider points the finger at Mark Meadows for 'fanning flames' that led to Capitol riots
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows shocked White House insiders when he continued pushing election conspiracy theories in public and behind the scenes.
Donald Trump's former chief of staff was told by then-attorney general William Barr, attorneys in the White House counsel's office and others that no widespread evidence of fraud was detected in the election, but Meadows surprised his colleagues by firing off a tweet on Dec. 21, 2020, following an Oval Office meeting between the president and Republican lawmakers, reported the Washington Post.
“Several members of Congress just finished a meeting in the Oval Office with President @realDonaldTrump, preparing to fight back against mounting evidence of voter fraud," Meadows tweeted. "Stay tuned.”
The tweet, which earned a disclaimer from Twitter, shocked others in the White House who thought it was time for Trump to concede his election loss to Joe Biden.
“Tweeting something like that out to the public gives people false hope, and I think fanned the flames of a lot of the people who stormed the Capitol,” said former press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who has testified at length before the House select committee.
Meadows made a surprise visit the following day to Cobb County, Georgia, where deputy secretary of state Jordan Fuchs prevented him from entering the room where ballots were being checked, and he struck up a conversation outside the door with the attorney general's lead investigator Frances Watson -- who received a phone call the following day from the president.
“Mark asked me to do it, he thinks you’re great,” Trump said in a recording of the call, which also shows him claiming he'd won the state “by hundreds of thousands of votes.”
“Whatever you can do Frances,," Trump added, "it’s a great thing, an important thing for the country.”
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