cnn reveal just how involved republican senator mike lee and congressman chip roy were in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election. nbc news has not review the text messages, which are said to span from just after the election until days before the insurrection. on november 7th, senator lee texted mark meadows offering, quote, unequivocal support for trump to exhaust every legal and constitutional remedy at his disposal. that very same day, congressman roy texted meadows, saying, we need ammo. we need fraud examples. we needed this weekend. then, on december 16th, there is a text from mike lee that says, quote, if you want sanders to object, we need to hear from you on that. ideally getting some guidance on what arguments to raise. but then, both lawmakers appear to have had a change of heart. on january 1st, 2021, congressman roy texted, if potus allows this to occur, we are driving a stake in the heart of the federal republic.
alex, these conversations from congressman chip roy, from end of december, it reveals his views on overturning the i election. congressman roy, dude, we need ammo, we need fraud examples. we need it this weekend. he s making it very clear, yes, i m willing to help you, trump team, overturn the 2020 election. but making it clear he needs examples of voter fraud to help do that. fast forward a week and a half. november 19th, congressman roy again texts mark meadows and says we need substance or people going to break. this is one of the first warning signs, again, mark meadows reiterating the fact that he needs evidence of voter fraud and they need evidence of voter fraud to make, have the election overturned. and congressman roy clearly concerned and, frankly, puts his foot down and says the president
meadows reads we offer our unequivocal support for you to exhaust every legal and constitutional recommend at this at your disposal to restore americans faith in our elections. another from roy to meadows says we need ammo. we need fraud examples. we need it this weekend. katie, i should mention lee and roy both expressed frankly their disgust with what happened on january 6th, at tack on the capitol and both broke with the majority of republicans in voting to certify president biden s election results, but these texts really just show how invested, how they genuinely believed that the election was rigged, katie. but allie, both lawmakers eventually got to the point where they realized there was no evidence to stand on to support this claim of a stolen election, but it seems like they signed on first and then asked the questions later. was there something going on that made them change their tune other than the fact there was no
support for you to exhaust every legal and constitutional that same day representative roy wrote, we need ammo, we need fraud examples, we need it this weekend. it seems bick december, however, the two lawmakers began to realize they may have made a mistake in trying to upend democracy and overturn the will of the people. on new year s eve, roy warned, the president should call everyone off. if we substitute the will of the state with a vote by congress every four years, we have destroyed the electoral college, quote. the end, next day, he added po lee argued this would end badly for the president unless we have the constitution on our side and unless they states have new stye electors pursuant to state law. we do not. in the end both men voted to
been a gold mine for investigators. he has done his part in their investigation. did you see any particular texts that caught your eye, particularly something material to the investigators? yeah, these meadow texts are so revealing. the first one is from november 7th, it comes from chip roy. quote, dude, we need ammo. we need fraud examples, examples of voter fraud. we need it this weekend. meadows writes we are working on exactly that. the initial days after the election, worried we re going to need evidence. if you fast forward 12 days to november 19 there s another exchange where senator mike lee texts meadows. the potential defamation liability for the president is significant here for the campaign and for the president personally unless powell, sidney powell, can back up everything she said, referring to her sort of wild claims of voter fraud, which i kind of doubt she can,