and welcome to way too early. on this wednesday, december 14th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. never before seen text messages are providing new insight into just how deeply the trump white house engaged with bedunked election conspiracy theories following the 2020 vote. the 2319 texts are from the phone of former white house chief of staff mark meadows and more recently obtained by talking points memo after being turned over to the house from the january 6th committee. the latest batch of relief messages show multiple lawmakers offering to cooperate with plans to keep trump in office, seemingly in exchange for pardon requests. one such message came from north carolina s newly elected senator ted budd. the man budd asked to be pardoned may possibly be former congressman robin hayes. in 2020, hayes was found guilty