Utah Sen. Mike Lee advised, then warned Trump White House on attempts to overturn the election

Sen. Mike Lee, R-UT, suggested and inspired the White Home in its makes an attempt to overturn the 2020 election and ultimately warned them in opposition to their very own technique, in accordance with textual content messages obtained as a part of a Home investigation into the Jan. 6 rebel and as reported by CNN.

The texts between Lee and then-White Home Chief of Employees Mark Meadows present that Utah’s senior senator initially supported authorized challenges of battleground state election outcomes and made options to bolster their technique.

For instance, Lee texted Meadows in early November, “The nation is relying upon your continued resolve. Keep robust and preserve combating Mr. President.”

In late November, he texted Meadows, “Please inform me what I needs to be saying.”

He additionally lobbied to get lawyer Sidney Powell a gathering with Trump. Powell was part of the Trump marketing campaign’s authorized workforce till the tip of November and pushed baseless theories of election fraud.

However over time, Lee grew to become more and more involved with the efforts and on Jan. 3 texted Meadows that they may “backfire badly.”

On Jan. 6, after pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol, Lee didn’t object to the outcomes of the election on the Senate ground as a result of not one of the states had put forth one other slate of electors.

“This merely isn’t how our federal system is meant to work,” Lee mentioned on the Senate ground on Jan. 6. “Our job is to convene, to open the ballots, and to depend them. That’s it.”

Lee declined an interview with KUER, however his communications director Lee Lonsberry mentioned in a press release that the textual content messages are in step with the senator’s speech that day.

“They inform the story of a U.S. Senator fulfilling his obligation to Utah and the American individuals by following the Structure,” Lonsberry mentioned in a press release.

However Lee’s two GOP main challengers are criticizing the textual content messages.

“Our senior senator, Mike Lee, researched overturning a lawful democratic election for partisan political achieve,” mentioned former GOP state Rep. Becky Edwards, who’s working to unseat Lee. “This was an assault truly on our integrity as a rustic. It is an assault on the oath that Sen. Lee took to the Structure and the democratic course of.”

Republican candidate Ally Isom, former deputy chief of employees for former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, mentioned habits like these textual content messages is precisely why she’s working.

“I believe Utahns desire a senator that they know they will depend on to work 14 to 16 hours a day for them,” she mentioned, “someone who’s dedicated to their points and their priorities somewhat than taking part in partisan political video games and getting caught up within the within the pandering that is so widespread in Washington, D.C.”

The first election is on June 28.