During an interview on MSNBC Wednesday, Washington Post Post reporter Carol Leonnig that a Republican member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus who had advanced knowledge of former President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 plans sent a “chilling” message to the White House before a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol.
“If POTUS allows this to occur… we’re driving a stake in the heart of the federal republic,” the lawmaker —who was not named— wrote to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows on Jan. 1 or Jan. 2, The Washington Post reported.
“What exactly did that Freedom Caucus member mean by ‘this’?” Leonnig asked in comments highlighted by Raw Story.
The journalist speculated that it was possible the lawmaker was referring to the pressure on then-Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of the 2020 election in Congress (which he ultimately refused to do).
“But what else could the ‘this’ be?” she asked, The Huffington Post noted. “How grim and chilling a piece of information is this, if this lawmaker knew something Donald Trump was plotting beyond what we all know now?”
Washington Post congressional correspondent Jaqueline Alemany, the lead author on the text messages story, also discussed the findings with MSNBC’s Alex Wagner.
Watch the videos below.
