Talking Points Memo reporter Hunter Walker has gotten hold of the full stash of text messages sent to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows in the wake of former President Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 election, and they show several Republican lawmakers taking an apocalyptic view of the former president's defeat.
Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), for instance, flat-out equated Trump's loss with the end of the American republic.
"Mark, When we lose Trump we lose our Republic," he wrote to Meadows. "Fight like hell and find a way. We’re with you down here in Texas and refuse to live under a corrupt Marxist dictatorship. Liberty! Babin."
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), meanwhile, took things even further and said Trump needed to declare "Marshall Law" (sic) in order to "save" the American republic.
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"Mark, in seeing what’s happening so quickly, and reading about the Dominion law suits attempting to stop any meaningful investigation we are at a point of no return in saving our Republic !!" he declared. "Our LAST HOPE is invoking Marshall Law!! PLEASE URGE TO PRESIDENT TO DO SO!!"
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), on the other hand, did not equate Trump's loss with the end of the American republic, but he did use a profane slur to describe the people who certified the results of the election.
"Let me know if there’s anything I can do to fight these MF’ers in Pa.?" he wrote to Meadows. "Our President is heroic !! Thank you for all you’ve done and please let the President know just how much he’s loved and appreciated in Pennsylvania! Sincerely, Mike Kelly."
And Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) sent Meadows a message pushing for Republican-led state legislatures to flat-out intervene on Trump's behalf to declare him the winner.
"Dick Morris is saying State Leg can intervene and declare Trump winner," he wrote. "NC, PA, MI, WI all have GOP Leg."
This theory was infamously proposed by Trump lawyer John Eastman, who helped lead a failed pressure campaign to get Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certified election results so that they could be sent back to the state legislatures.