Mike Lee and Chip Roy election texts exposed 'half-baked' attempt to save Trump: analyst

According to the Washington Post's Aaron Blake, CNN's release of a trove of texts from Sen Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows exposed how shoddy and ill-planned the attempt to steal the 2020 election was as the lawmakers fumbled around to find evidence to fit their pre-conceived conclusions.

CNN reported the two lawmakers were frantically communicating with each other and Meadows leading up to the Jan. 6 election certification vote that was disrupted by supporters of Donald Trump who had exhorted them to descend on Washington D.C. that day for a "Stop the Steal" rally.

What the texts revealed was two lawmakers who went from believing the White House could help them make the case that the election was stolen, to begging for help, to dismay at what they were presented to resigning and dismay that there was no case to made to fit their plans.

According to Blake, the texts and desperation they revealed had a sadly comical quality to them, including the ultimately misguided belief that attorney Sidney Powell would come through with irrefutable evidence of fraud.

"The texts reinforce the Keystone Kops nature of the effort, and they also shed light on internal GOP misgivings about the electoral fraud evidence that was being presented — reservations that few Republicans actually shared publicly," he wrote. "As Election Day gave way to late November, then December and early January, it was clear Powell’s 'Kraken' was indeed mythological. And the texts reinforce that the two GOP lawmakers understood that, as they pleaded for something — anything — to work with as they publicly sought to legitimate Trump’s claims."

Blake added, "One of the effort’s defining features was how half-baked it was. And Lee’s texts reinforce that. In addition to complaining about the evidence presented (or the lack thereof), he repeatedly argued that the Trump campaign needed states to submit alternative slates of electors for any of it to work: Congress needed competing slates from which to choose."

As the analyst notes, even that plan was doomed from the start because former vice president Mike Pence was not agreeable to overturning the election results or derailing the vote certification.

In the end, Roy admitted they had been chasing their tails, texting, "The President should call everyone off. It’s the only path. If we substitute the will of states through electors with a vote by Congress every 4 years... we have destroyed the electoral college... Respectfully," before advising Trump, "Give a statesman speech. End strong.”

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