Mark Meadows: One Helluva Liar

By David Corn  July 2, 2022

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows at the White House on October 26, 2020. Patrick Semansky/AP

Mark Meadows’ book should be recalled and pulped.

After watching the compelling testimony of his onetime senior aide Cassidy Hutchinson—who offered evidence indicating that Donald Trump intended to marshal the violence of his extremist supporters to overthrow the constitutional order and stay in office—I lunged for my copy of Meadows’ own account of his days as Trump’s chief factotum. I already knew that Meadows’ book, The Chief’s Chief, was bunk, having previously reported that its understated and limited characterization of January 6—there was a great rally and some bad apples went too far—was vastly at odds with the text messages he had received that day that were released late last year by the House J6 select committee. But Hutchinson’s testimony further shows the guy is a gigantic liar.

Okay, maybe that’s not a newsflash. After all, in his book he fully supports Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election, while, of course, citing no proof. He cites the “electricity” present at the final Trump rallies before Election Day to back up his claim, “I knew he didn’t lose.” He devotes merely a few pages to the post-election period and January 6. In this stretch, he doesn’t mention Trump’s efforts to pressure state election officials and Republican state officeholders to overturn the results, Trump’s attempt to muscle Justice Department officials to declare the election was corrupt, or Trump’s scheming with John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, assorted Republican House members, and others to block the certification of the electoral votes. He declares that Trump “wanted to uphold the Democratic process.” (Note to copyeditor: Meadows errantly capitalized “democratic.”) And he hammers “the Fake News” for “instituting a full-court press against President Trump” by portraying his supporters as “crazy, unhinged, or moronic.” The book is a triumph of toadyism.

Meadows portrays January 6 as nothing more than Trump’s last chance to make a “last formal address to his supporters” and to give them “one more chance to come together, make their voices heard, and encourage each other.” He insists Trump did not call for violence or expect that anyone would enter the Capitol. He says that after Trump’s speech to the crowd at the Ellipse, Trump told him that he had no intention of joining the throng as it headed toward Capitol Hill and that he had only been speaking metaphorically when he had declared to the assembled, “I’ll be there with you.” In this book, Meadows writes nothing about what happened in the White House during the riot. Not a single word. Nada regarding any action Trump or he took during one of the most consequential and horrific events in US history. That’s quite a tell.

Hutchinson’s appearance before the committee makes clear why Meadows elided those harrowing hours: He and Trump had sat on their duffs, violating the oaths they had sworn to defend the Constitution. Trump was apparently rooting on the rioters.

According to Hutchinson:

* On January 2, Giuliani told Hutchinson that Meadows knew about a plan then being developed to have Trump supporters march on the Capitol on March 6. When Hutchinson asked Meadows about this, he said “things might get real, real bad on January 6.” (After learning of this idea, White House counsel Pat Cipollone urged Hutchinson to prevent Trump from going to the Capitol, noting it could lead to criminal charges.)

* On January 5, Meadows wanted to meet with Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, two Trump loyalists pushing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, at the so-called “war room” that had been set up by Steve Bannon and others at the Willard Hotel in preparation for January 6. (At a pre-march rally on January 5, Stone had proclaimed, “This is a fight for the future of Western civilization as we know it... It’s a fight between the godly and the godless.” And Flynn’s brother Joe blasted the “cowards” in the GOP and exclaimed, “Are we going to let them cower to these communists?”) After being told he shouldn’t meet in person with Stone and Flynn, Meadows settled for a phone call. (It’s not publicly known what was discussed. Both Stone and Flynn were in touch with extremist groups in the days preceding the attack on the Capitol.)

* When Meadows was informed on the morning of January 6 that police were confiscating weapons from people showing up for Trump’s rally, he didn’t look up from his phone and appeared uninterested. (Trump, too, was told this and was unconcerned about the presence of weapons. He was even upset his supporters were being searched for weapons, believing that was limiting the number of people allowed into the rally site.)

* Unlike what Meadows wrote in his book, Trump wanted to lead the mob that he knew included armed supporters to Capitol Hill, and he was prevented from doing so by the Secret Service. (This led, Hutchinson says, to the dramatic moment when Trump allegedly tried to grab the wheel of the presidential SUV and assaulted the head of his Secret Service detail. Other sources, not under oath, deny this part of Hutchinson’s testimony, in which she was sharing what she had been told shortly after this episode allegedly occurred.)

* When the rioters were storming the Capitol, Hutchinson found Meadows in his office on his cellphone. She asked whether he had discussed with Trump what was transpiring. “No, he wants to be alone right now,” Meadows said. A few minutes later, Meadows told Cipollone, “[Trump] doesn’t want to do anything.” And after Meadows and Cipollone met with Trump and Cipollone insisted to Meadows that Trump had to take action to stop the riot, especially since the marauders were chanting, “Hang Mike Pence,” Meadows replied, “You heard him, Pat, he thinks Mike deserves it.”

* The day after the assault, Trump wanted to include in a speech language about offering pardons to the rioters. Meadows was supportive of this. And he asked Trump for a pardon for himself. (Meadows denies he requested a pardon.)

This is not a good look for Meadows, enabling Trump’s enabling of the January 6 riot. There’s a lot of information beyond Hutchinson’s testimony that has come out about Meadows’ role in encouraging the Big Lie and his participation in the assorted Trump schemes to negate the election tally. His book includes no references to any of this skullduggery. The memoir is Meadows’ own personal cover-up and a profound act of Trumpian propaganda. After Hutchinson’s appearance before the January 6 committee, we now have even a better understanding of why Meadows refused to cooperate with the committee, for which he was held in contempt. When Congress was being stormed by domestic terrorists, he helped Trump do nothing.

We shouldn’t be surprised that Meadows conned those who bought his book. To serve a liar, one must be a liar. Perhaps the same goes for grifters. As Meadows continues to participate in American politics—he’s helping to build a vast, right-wing, dark-money operation to influence elections and policy fights—Hutchinson’s testimony is a reminder that he is a dark force of disinformation himself and that when American democracy was under attack, Meadows was a traitor to the Constitution.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.

The Country Needs a Break

I know it’s been a rough patch for lovers of freedom and reason in the United States. That’s certainly true for the Our Land gang. So we’re going to take off a few days to celebrate the founding of our land—and the lofty ideals that we have yet to reach. No better way to do that than eating tofurkey dogs and Impossible Burgers and watching a local parade. Happy July 4th to all our readers and supporters. And please make sure you tell your neighbors and pals about Our Land, and let them know they can subscribe at www.davidcorn.com.

Dumbass Comment of the Week

Is malicious bigotry the same thing as stupidity? I ask because I was considering Jarrin Jackson for this week’s prize. He recently won the most votes in a Republican state Senate primary in Oklahoma, and he’s a full-throated anti-Semite. As Media Matters notes, “Jackson has repeatedly posted antisemitic remarks online, including saying that he’s ‘not beholden to Jews’ and listing ‘the Jews’ as evidence that ‘evil exists.’” Having been supported by a plurality of GOP voters in his district, he will compete in a run-off election against another Republican on August 23. And he claims to have endorsements from several prominent pro-Trump Republicans, including  Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem and state Sen. Wendy Rogers. Each of them is a well-known supporter of fringe-right extremism. Both are QAnonish election denialists who Trump has endorsed. As for Jackson, let me repeat: this anti-Semite placed first in a GOP primary—another sign of derangement and hatred on the right.

Fortunately, I did not have to resolve the abovementioned question. Ali Alexander, who claims to be the leader of the pro-Trump, so-called Stop the Steal movement, made this week’s choice easy. Appearing on conspiracist-liar Alex Jones’ website, InfoWars, Alexander assailed Democrats, observing that liberals who claim to be “pro-science, pro-reason, pro-tolerance” are “demonically possessed.” He further explained: “This is as Luciferian as it is Bolshevik as it is Marxist as it is Democrat. They mean to implode the country.” Remember, this is the fellow who has led Republicans in contending there was fraud in the 2020 election. (Speaking at a pre-January 6 rally held the day before, Alexander gave “a few shout-outs” to his friend Jones.) In years past, such lunacy would discredit a movement leader. In the Trump era, it’s an asset.

The Mailbag

Once again, thanks for all the emails. Each one is read. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court conservatives killing Roe v. Wade, readers seemed appreciative of the history lesson I provided about the right’s relentless 50-year campaign to reach this point. Heather Booth, a veteran progressive organizer who began fighting for justice in the early 1960s when she was part of Freedom Summer, wrote:

Excellent article. The other lesson from the story is that ORGANIZING—consistently done over time, backed by money and driven into elections with a communications plan—wins!  NEVER TIME TO GIVE UP. I'm going to use this example in other talks I give. Thanks.

Glad I could be of service. Tom Johnson emailed:

I am a devout evangelical Christian (Southern Baptist, the convention with which I no longer identify) from early childhood with two graduate degrees from a leading evangelical seminary. I applaud you for your continued efforts to chronicle and reverse the agonizing lurch to the right of our political system. I am heartbroken that so many of my fellow evangelicals have been hijacked politically by scoundrels like Donald Trump. Most, I believe, are sincere in wanting what they believe is right and good. Unfortunately, they are severely hoodwinked by Mr. Trump and so many other self-seeking political types. Please continue your efforts to wake people up to the truth.  

I hope Tom is correct in his appraisal. But I suspect a large number of Christian conservatives want a non-tolerant, authoritarian society in which their religion and culture is dominant. Such a desire is easily exploited by Trump and others.

Patricia Jaeger had a different take than Tom:

As always, I enjoyed today's newsletter and I agree with your argument. The push of the Christofacists has been going on for a long time and did get worse with G.W. Bush. It's also important to remember that this is mostly a push by white males who completely agree with patriarchy. Their religions also support white male patriarchy and would love to see the US back in the 1800s. While there are women in these religions and movements they rarely are in positions of real power and, sadly, do not recognize this. There are always collaborators. 

In a previous issue, I asked how much praise, if any, should be afforded those Republican officials who stood up to Trump when he was trying to steal the 2020 election. After all, they all helped us reach the point where Trump could try to overturn American democracy. Karen Martin emailed:

I agree with your insights. Better late than never, but... not really. Everyone in that White House, everyone that was aware of the dangerous actions of that president, had pledged to uphold our Constitution. While he was in office, they were silent. Too little, too late? I hope not.

Leanna Landsmann wrote:

I’m angry because these “stick to the rules” Republican said they would vote for Trump again!

Many readers agreed with Leanna, noting they were aghast that GOP officials who acknowledge that Trump conspired against the constitutional order to retain power have stated they would again vote for him. Mo Winograd was one such subscriber:

Why not write about the Republicans from Georgia who, after testifying about all the machinations Trump and his minions devised to change the results there, said the next day that if Trump runs in 2024, they will vote for this traitor again?

Dell Erwin concurred:

Thanks for today’s insightful column. I appreciate your commentaries and have been a fan for years. I wish you would mention that even though we may be glad some Republicans did not go along with Trump in the overthrow, they enabled this thug for four years and would again. Please publish this unbelievable comment from [Arizona House speaker Rusty] Bowers. It’s representative, unfortunately. Despite bravely speaking out against Trump’s election interference, he insisted he’d still vote for him in 2024: “If he is the nominee, if he was up against Biden, I’d vote for him again. Simply because what he did the first time, before COVID, was so good for the country. In my view it was great.”

I know. I know. I don’t understand either. There were hundreds of thousands of Americans who died preventable deaths during Covid, because of Trump’s inept response to the pandemic. And yet Bowers would put Trump back in office, even though he recognizes Trump was a profound threat to American democracy. I don’t get it.

Wes Davis emailed:

Well, I did it, I signed up for your newsletter. I have always enjoyed your work and even purchased a copy of Russian Roulette.  Here are some thoughts about the last few weeks. I was born in 1950 in Pocatello, Idaho. I lived through the 1960s, came out as a gay man, helped a dear friend pay for the trip to California to get an abortion, got beat up for being gay, fired for being gay, and generally was terrorized by the natives.  Later when I lived in Las Vegas, I started a charity to deal with the AIDS crisis. I remember all the discrimination that we faced there. After testifying at a legislative hearing in Carson with some of my clients, the room was sanitized. So I know what is coming.  

The recent Supreme Court decisions have moved us closer to a theocracy. I feel like I am watching a bad movie where you know the good guys will lose. Sort of like the movie Porky’s, only as a horror film.  People today need to know as bad as it is now, it can get worse.  Our only hope is to vote and demand the change that is needed. I look forward to reading the next Our Land.

Mary Bonnette was also encouraging:

David, please keep writing. The country needs your relentless voice!

Thanks, Wes and Mary. Since there are more Americans who support reproductive rights and gun safety measures than those who do not, what the nation needs is for them to raise hell and give a damn about the far right’s assault on these and other policies. I wonder if the Dobbs decision will have any effect on the coming midterm elections.

Holly Hertel wrote in on a most important topic:

I love this week's MoxieCam, not only because it shows the different seasons of such a sweetheart pooch, but that it suggests that one can plop their dog right next to the sign, go run your errands, and then pick up said dog next to sign after the groom. Was this intentional?

Until Moxie signs her endorsement deal with this grooming service, we can’t say anything more about it. Meanwhile...

MoxieCam™

“Sorry you cut your foot, Moxie.”

“Can I still chase after those damn groundhogs here?”

“Well, it might be best...”

“And, please, no Red Sox jokes.”

Read Recent Issues of Our Land

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June 25, 2022: Hooray for the Trump Republicans who saved the nation—or not?; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Clarence Thomas); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

June 21, 2022: Is Trump’s GOP getting even crazier?; George Carlin and the American Dream; Alexei Navalny’s nightmare; and more.

June 18, 2022: Is Elon Musk more dangerous than Peter Thiel?; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Lauren Boebert, again); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

June 14, 2022: From Watergate to Trump: Does the system really work?; a thrilling performance by Paul McCartney; how The Staircase apprehends its viewers; and more.

June 11, 2022: In the room where it happened: covering the January 6 committee’s hearing; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Jesse Watters and others); my proudest moment in journalism; the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

June 7, 2022: Barack Obama was right about the gun clingers; Special Emergency Dumbass Comment of the Week (Louie Gohmert); Our Land in Photos; the perfection of Better Call Saul; the sublime new album from Wilco; and more.

June 4, 2022: Are Democats pathetic?; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Ken Buck); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

May 28, 2022: What to hope for after the Uvalde massacre; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Candace Owens); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

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Got suggestions, comments, complaints, tips related to any of the above, or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.