In Contempt of the Contemptible
I viewed an interview of Mark Meadows last week by Mike Huckabee. Frankly it caused me some concern for a couple of reasons. To begin with, the House committee investigating the January 6th events at the Capitol has now charged Mark Meadows with contempt of Congress for refusing to divulge executive privileged information to that committee. Meadows was Chief of Staff to President Trump, and because of that, all his communications with the president fall into the category of executive privilege. That designation existed all the way back to George Washington and has been in place since the founding of our country to insure that the president receives confidential advice from people with specialized knowledge. The second reason for my concern is that the commit
The second reason for my concern is that the committee itself has shown an unholy bias against the President and might even be classified as illegal. As Mark Meadows himself pointed out, every single member of the committee has previously voted in favor of impeaching President Trump. Speaker Pelosi rejected every Republican that the minority party proposed as members of the committee. She then stepped in and selected two “never Trumpers”as the sole Republican members. In doing so she totally fractured House rules (both as to number chosen and method of selection). We're now left with an interesting question. If the
We're now left with an interesting question. If the House speaker shows contempt for House Republicans and freezes them out of the committee selection process, does her contempt produce an end product that is no longer worthy of Republican respect and to which Republicans are no longer obliged to obey? Meadows refers to the committee as a “Kangaroo Court.” Are Republicans obliged to take part in a Kangaroo court? Put another way, is Contempt of Congress justified when Congress itself has become contemptible?
These arguments are more than a mere intellectual exercise. Mark Meadows has now sued Nancy Pelosi. Sooner or later we'll be hearing some sort of answer to the arguments. One of the things Mark wants to know about Nancy is what text messages and emails she received or sent in the days leading up to January 6th. She wants to know what messages he received, but he also wants to know what she received. Now why would he want to know that? One reason he might want to know is that Donald
One reason he might want to know is that Donald Trump, himself, urged her to increase security protection for the Capitol in preparation for January 6th rally. Pelosi rejected the idea. Meadows just might like to know why she turned down Trump's request for increased security. He requested, in fact, that ten thousand National Guardsmen be brought in to protect the building. You don't hear the Democrats talking about Trump's
You don't hear the Democrats talking about Trump's request for Pelosi to bring in the National Guard. Why not? Probably because it doesn't fit well with the Democrat narrative that Trump wanted to topple Congress. It sounds more like the Democrats were busy planning their own destabilizing event in hopes of discrediting Trump.
Mark Meadows certainly isn't trying to hide anything from the American people. He has, in fact, just written a book entitled “The Chief's Chief” about his time as the President's Chief of Staff. One of the reasons for his interview was to promote the book. If the committee wants to learn more about Trump, all the members have to do is spend a few bucks for their own personal copy of Meadows' book. They will find a wealth of information in it that is not classified as secret. For one thing they will find that Trump works until 3 AM nightly and then rises at 7:30 each morning to call Meadows and others to see how the to-do list he provided at 2 AM is being handled.
If Trump were interacting personally on a daily basis with Congress, he would drive them all crazy. Congressmen aren't used to working with that dedication and intensity. Compared with Trump, they would probably be considered lazy. Trump got as much done as he did during his term because he outworked everybody else. That's another reason some of those being sent subpoenas by the committee may find the senders contemptible.
Haughey is Senior Advisor of the Texas Republican County Chairman’s Association.