{"id":434468,"date":"2021-12-15T20:21:10","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T20:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=7da580eebb410f12f283038cf5530a05"},"modified":"2021-12-15T20:21:10","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T20:21:10","slug":"the-meadows-texts-may-be-the-watergate-tapes-of-the-1-6-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/12\/15\/the-meadows-texts-may-be-the-watergate-tapes-of-the-1-6-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"The Meadows Texts May Be the Watergate Tapes of the 1\/6 Inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Mark<\/a>

More than a year into Donald Trump\u2019s increasingly disturbing post-defeat effort to topple the republic in the name of personal vengeance, it is easy to forget what an unmitigated clown show his administration was. Even amid the deliberately inflicted fascist chaos, there were plenty of moments when the White House couldn’t manage the recipe for buttered bread. Mark Meadows is a shining example of that lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe House on Tuesday voted to hold former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in criminal contempt of Congress,\u201d reports<\/a> The Washington Post<\/em>, \u201cfor defying a subpoena issued by the bipartisan committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob\u2026. Members of the Jan. 6 panel have long said the information they seek from Meadows, a onetime North Carolina congressman, is not protected under any kind of executive privilege as the bipartisan panel investigates the insurrection, what former president Donald Trump did that fateful day and the actions leading up to the riot.\u201d<\/p>\n

A quick refresher for those who may not be fully up on their Meadows lore: The former South Carolina House member rode into office on the Tea Party tidal wave of 2012. He is a founding member of the now-notorious Freedom Caucus<\/a>, which exists only to denude and destroy the government that caters to it. Meadows is famous for voting against aid for those affected by Hurricane Sandy, helping to bounce John Boehner from the Speaker\u2019s chair for being too liberal, shutting down the government to prevent people with pre-existing medical conditions from getting insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act<\/span>, voting against renewing the Violence Against Women Act because that\u2019s what \u201cGod\u2019s country\u201d wanted him to do, and opposing any form of restrictions on gun purchases.<\/p>\n

After becoming chief of staff in 2019, Meadows was almost religiously devoted to whatever deep-fried nonsense fell from Trump\u2019s mouth on any given day. Full in the knowledge that he was the fourth to occupy this office in three years, and that his predecessors had been chopped down and publicly humiliated by the boss before their abrupt departure, Meadows did his obsequious best to walk the line. He lasted 295 days, to the final day of the administration.<\/p>\n

During Meadows\u2019s tenure, the top two issues on Trump\u2019s mind were the fictional stolen election and his insistence on downplaying the menace presented by COVID-19. Meadows has much to answer for due to his actions on the latter: He actively dismissed the effectiveness of masks, and counseled Trump do the same lest he infuriate the GOP base. Meadows was also notoriously hostile to the scientists advising the administration on the pandemic, often attacking or undermining Anthony Fauci for saying anything that might do political harm to the administration.<\/p>\n

It was Meadows\u2019s open devotion to Trump\u2019s \u201cWe Wuz Robbed!\u201d election theft quest that has drawn the attention of the select committee. After initially agreeing to cooperate, and after handing over a large tranche of documents, Meadows abruptly reversed course and revoked his cooperation.<\/p>\n