South Carolina U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman said his text messages to Mark Meadows calling for former President Donald Trump to invoke martial law over the 2020 election results declaring Joe Biden the winner were out of “frustration.”
The text messages were revealed and first published Monday night by political news website Talking Points Memo. They show that Norman, a Rock Hill Republican, pushing then-White House chief of staff Meadows to tell Trump to declare martial law. The text messages were sent to Meadows four days after Trump was impeached for his role in the Capitol riot, and three days before Biden was inaugurated.
“Mark, in seeing what’s happening so quickly, and reading about the Dominion law suits attempting to stop any meaningful investigation we are at a point of no return in saving our Republic!!” Norman texted on Jan. 17, 2021. “Our LAST HOPE is invoking Marshall (sic) Law!! PLEASE URGE TO PRESIDENT TO DO SO!!”
Two months earlier, Norman, standing with South Carolina’s Republican congressional members in the S.C. State House, said he would accept the results of the election if all legal options were exhausted.
Norman said Tuesday that the text message was sent out of “frustration.”
“Obviously, Martial Law was never warranted,” Norman said in a statement released by his congressional office. “That text message came from a source of frustration, on the heels of countless unanswered questions about the integrity of the 2020 election, without any way to slow down and examine those issues prior to the inauguration of the newly elected president.”
On Nov. 7, 2020, shortly after news media projected Biden’s Electoral College victory, Norman urged Meadows to continue to “fight” on Trump’s behalf, according to the Talking Points Memo report. In the text message to Meadows, Norman called for recounts in battleground states Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania, all which Biden won.
Norman, a former state lawmaker first elected to Congress in 2017 in a special election, also told Meadows in a text that he planned to participate in a S.C. State House news conference with other members of South Carolina’s congressional delegation to discuss ways to strengthen election security.
“Guys, if there was ever a time to stand with our leader who has strengthened our military, stood for life for the unborn, supported Israel, built the wall, appointed conservative judges ect (sic). And we lay down and abandon him JUST BECAUSE THE BIASED MEDIA HAS CALL THE ELECTION??” Norman texted Meadows.
Norman continued, “For anyone willing to discuss our game plan let me or anyone else know and let’s get on a conference call with concrete plans of action. I will go anywhere anytime to help our cause. Bottom line, it’s time we FIGHT FOR THE ONE PERSON WHO HAS CHANGED THIS COUNTRY!! WAY TOO SOON TO GIVE IN NOW!!”
Norman is one of 34 Republican U.S. representatives and senators, in 364 text messages, who communicated with Meadows about how to overturn the 2020 election results in Trump’s favor.
Meadows now lives in South Carolina and was recently ordered to testify in front of a Georgia grand jury investigating efforts to overturn that state’s 2020 election results. That grand jury also heard testimony from U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., about his phone calls with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
On Nov. 10, 2020, standing in the State House lobby with his Republican House colleagues, Norman said they would accept the election results once legal options were exhausted and all votes were verified.
“Oh absolutely,” Norman told reporters Nov. 10 when asked whether he’d accept the results. “I do not hate Joe Biden. I do not like his policies. But that being said, yes we will accept. ... We support an honest process. This process (counting the election results), it needs to be borne out, whether it’s honest or dishonest.”
Biden was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2021, as elected Republicans and Trump promoted false and unfounded allegations of widespread voting fraud. Trump’s own attorney general, Bill Barr, has said there was no evidence to overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump’s efforts to overturn the results by the courts have also failed. Trump has lost 61 of 62 cases.
His sole win was a challenge in Pennsylvania over how much time voters had to “cure” ballots. Though the case went in Trump’s favor, it still did not change the state’s results. Biden won Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes.
On Jan. 6, 2021, thousands of pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, delaying Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results. Nineteen South Carolinians have so far been charged for their involvement in the riot, which has been the subject of a U.S. House congressional committee and is being investigated by a federal grand jury in Washington.
The day before Congress certified the results, Norman complained to Meadows about House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and other GOP members who did not support the election challenge efforts.
“Mark, I hear McCarthy is giving equal time to let those who are opposed to the challenge of the electoral votes which is LUDICROUS!! Trump needs to call Kevin!!” Norman wrote Meadows in a text message on Jan. 5, 2021.
Norman is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, and has said he will not support McCarthy’s run for speaker in the next Congress.
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