While former President Donald Trump pushed claims of election fraud, several members of his inner circle privately expressed doubts, according to newly released text messages.
On Nov. 6, 2020, just three days after the election, Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller texted a group of the president’s aides — daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner, adviser Hope Hicks, campaign manager Bill Stepien, aide Dan Scavino, and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — that numbers coming out of Pennsylvania showed no indication of voter fraud.
“One other key data point: In 2016, POTUS received 15.5% of the vote in Philadelphia County. Today he is currently at 18.3%,” Miller wrote, according to the texts obtained by CNN. “So he increased from his performance in 2016. In 2016, Philadelphia County made up 11.3% of the total vote in the state. As it currently stands, Philadelphia County only makes up 10.2% of the statewide vote tally. So POTUS performed better in a smaller share.”
LEAKED: TEXT MESSAGES FROM TRUMP ALLIES IN CONGRESS ON CHALLENGING 2020 ELECTION
Weeks later, Miller told Meadows that campaign research confirmed there was no evidence of conspiracy theories linking George Soros and Dominion Voting machines to tilt the election in Biden’s favor, a claim that was widely pushed by several Trump allies.
“Emailed you Dominion backgrounder,” Miller wrote on Nov. 13, 2020. “Lots there re: functionality problems, not much there on Dem/Soros conspiracy connections. Will defer to you on whether or not to share full report with POTUS. POTUS is clearly hyped up on them.”
The newly released trove of texts highlights the widespread efforts within the GOP to overturn the results of the 2020 election despite private concerns from the former president’s staunchest allies there wasn’t much evidence to back his claims. However, several Trump aides who expressed concerns to Meadows in private stuck by the president in public as he pushed allegations of a stolen election.
In the weeks following the election, Trump went on the offensive, claiming widespread voter fraud and irregularities in several swing states. Despite indications that some members of his inner circle disagreed with his claims — Meadows’s texts now show they doubted their validity — Trump’s supporters backed his efforts to overturn the election, either through their reluctance to halt the president or through public statements of their own.
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In one such instance, Kushner sent Meadows a link to an article fact-checking allegations that two Georgia election workers had submitted falsified ballots in support of Biden, prompting claims from Trump that the election was rigged. However, a state investigation later found the allegations to be false, as detailed in the article Kushner shared.
The collection of text messages was shared with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. Meadows is suing to block a congressional subpoena requiring him to provide more information. However, the leaked communications provide evidence the former chief of staff was warned the Jan. 6 rally at the Capitol could turn violent, prompting committee members to issue a late-night court filing Friday to fight Meadows’s lawsuit.
