A major newspaper in North Carolina excoriated former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in an editorial published Wednesday, calling the former Trump official an “embarrassment” for both the GOP and the state that he represented in Congress.
The op-ed in The Raleigh News & Observer blasting Meadows comes a day after the House voted to approve the Jan. 6 committee’s recommendation to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress.
The News & Observer editorial board opined that Meadows is “emerging as a disgrace during a dangerous hour for U.S. democracy.”
“Documents obtained by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol show Meadows participated in Trump’s effort to throw out the result of a free and fair presidential election,” the editorial board wrote.
It cited Meadows’ short-lived cooperation with the committee, in which he provided a tranche of damning text messages, before going back to stonewalling the committee earlier this month, citing executive privilege. Meadows also sued the committee, its members, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — listing them as defendants in his latest effort to block the enforcement of the committee’s subpoena.
Additionally, the editorial board noted the committee’s revelations of Meadows’ involvement in Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results, which included text messages showing an alleged plot to appoint “alternate slates of electors” on the day networks called Joe Biden’s presidential victory. The board also took aim at Meadows’ participation in a phone call between Trump and Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, when the former president asked Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse his loss in the battleground state.
The board notes Meadows’ history during his time serving in Congress as a Tea Party firebrand, founding member of the House Freedom Caucus and his key role in the 2013 government shutdown in an effort to end funding for the Affordable Care Act.
It goes onto argue that Meadows is the “embodiment” of how the state’s shift to “extreme gerrymandering” has given way to “reactionary and incompetent candidates” such as Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), who represents the district Meadows previously represented and has “found a way to be more extreme and embarrassing than Meadows.”
The board concluded the editorial by writing that Meadows has long made clear that he is a “Trump sycophant.”
“Now the question is whether his eagerness to please included breaking the law,” the board wrote. “The Jan. 6 committee needs to take a hard line with the former chief of staff who never drew a line for Trump.”
