Editorial on Mark Meadows after latest revelations: An embarrassment to North Carolina

Be sure to check out his morning’s lead editorial in the News & Observer/Charlotte Observer twins, “Mark Meadows is an embarrassment to NC. Congress should take a hard line with him.” In it, the authors detail some of the more outrageous acts of this rather pathetic character who, through the power of extreme gerrymandering, won a seat in Congress and then parleyed a reputation as one of Donald Trump’s chief bootlickers into brief stint as White House chief of staff during the waning days of the administration, when its criminality reached its apogee.

As the editorial notes, Meadows is the kind of morally bankrupt pol that the state GOP should be censuring for his behavior toward Trump (rather than the man they did censure — Richard Burr, who got officially pilloried for voting to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial).

Here is an excerpt:

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.

Meadows made a deal to cooperate with the congressional probe, but now is refusing to sit for a deposition, citing 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 House panel voted Monday to recommend contempt charges.

In advance of the recommendation, the committee released a report Sunday that contained new details of Meadows’s actions related to attempts to overturn the election results. The report said Meadows “received text messages and emails 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 Mr. Meadows responded, ‘I love it.’”

It’s also known that Meadows was on the phone when Trump pressured Georgia’s top election official to “find“ enough votes to reverse Trump’s Georgia loss. He also sought to have the Justice Department question the integrity of the election.

After going on to highlight Meadows’ admission in a book that Trump tested positive for COVID-19 prior to a debate with Joe Biden without disclosing it, the editorial concludes with this on-the-mark assessment:

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. Before Meadows, the 11th District was represented by a conservative Democrat, Heath Shuler, who retired after the district was redrawn to heavily favor Republicans. Now the district is represented by Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who has found a way to be more extreme and embarrassing than Meadows.