In an op-ed for North Carolina’s News & Observer, the outlet’s Editorial Board slammed former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — who hails from the state.
“The North Carolina Republican Party’s Central Committee voted unanimously to censure Burr for voting to convict Trump on the impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection,” the Board writes. “History may record that vote as Burr’s finest hour. Meanwhile, 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 cited the fact that the House select committee voted to hold Meadows in contempt after he reversed his decision to cooperate, claiming executive privilege. “He also has sued to block the committee’s subpoenas against him as ‘overly broad and unduly burdensome.’ He had turned over thousands of pages of documents to the committee, but is withholding some 1,000 text messages.” The Board also cited recent reports surrounding text messages and emails he received “regarding apparent efforts to encourage Republican legislators in certain States to send alternate slates of electors to Congress, a plan which one Member of Congress acknowledged was ‘highly controversial,'” and to which Meadows reportedly responded, “I love it.”
“All this comes after Meadows’s history as a Tea Party firebrand and founding member of the obstructionist House Freedom Caucus. He played a key role in shutting down the federal government in 2013 in an effort to end funding for the Affordable Care Act,” the Board writes.
“For North Carolina, Meadows is more than a figure in a Washington drama. He is the embodiment of how the state’s turn to extreme gerrymandering has opened the way for reactionary and incompetent candidates to represent the state in Congress.”
Read the full op-ed over at the News & Observer.
