'We need something from state legislatures to make this legitimate and to have any hope of winning,' Sen. Mike Lee wrote in one text.
In texts to Meadows sent in November, Lee is highly supportive of Trump’s efforts to undo the election through legal challenges, offering on Nov. 7, 2020 — the day news organizations projected Joe Biden as the winner — his “unequivocal support for you to exhaust every legal and constitutional remedy at your disposal to restore Americans faith in our elections.
Lee’s words on the Senate floor that day, however, did not reflect what the texts showed: his frustration with Trump after the president criticized him at a Jan. 4 rally in Georgia for not doing enough to overturn the results, his complaints about fellow Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and his recommendations to Meadows to seek the help of lawyers Sidney Powell and John Eastman.
“I only know that this will end badly for the President unless we have the Constitution on our side,” Lee added. “And unless these states submit new slates of Trump electors pursuant to state law, we do not.”Lee’s willingness to support Trump’s campaign to overturn the election is notable given his experience — he clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and was mentioned as a possible Supreme Court nominee when Trump ran for office in 2016.
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