Oh, cool, no major newspaper put the Mark Meadows PowerPoint coup presentation on their front page
On Thursday, it was revealed that former White House Chief Mark Meadows—who’s been riding high on the absurdity of his latest book—turned over an email to the Jan. 6 Committee featuring a PowerPoint presentation presenting a host of options to prevent Mike Pence from certifying the 2020 presidential election. The PowerPoint includes recommendations like declaring a national state of emergency, invalidating all electronic votes, and informing lawmakers of foreign interference. Curiously, the major threat to democracy was nowhere to be found on the front pages of major newspapers around the country.
A quick look at the Newseum’s Freedom Forum archive of daily papers shows a whole lot of local issues mixed in with tributes to the late Bob Dole. Major papers like the New York Times and Washington Post put Dole’s memorial front and center, with below-the-fold articles on the pandemic, foreign policy, and other pressing issues rounding out the rest of the page. A look at many states’ largest newspapers by subscribers appear similar in their covers, though some stand out for the prevalent advertisements and lighter fare. Newspapers have to retain their readers somehow, though a major story like Meadows’ big revelation seems like an awful lot to overlook.
Sure, it’s not as fun as his alarm at Trump’s Diet Coke button or joy that the president, who put countless people’s health at risk while downplaying his own COVID-19 diagnosis, was able to score some McDonald’s in the hospital. But it’s a hell of a lot more consequential than a late-to-the-party New York Times piece on the “Birds Aren’t Real” meme movement that started in 2017. It’s also not as hard to believe as you’d think that, behind closed doors, Trump’s team was working overtime to keep Biden out of the Oval Office.
A look at some of the country’s biggest newspapers from Friday, Dec. 10.
The scandalous PowerPoint coincides with the revelation on Friday that attorney Jenna Ellis also tried her hand at keeping her former client Donald Trump in power. According to Politico, Ellis was so desperate to overturn the election that she authored multiple memos about it. In one such missive from Dec. 31, Ellis recommended that former VP Pence refuse to open or count any electoral votes from states Trump deemed rife with voter fraud. You’ll also never guess who was one of the memo’s recipients: Mark Meadows. It’s a small Trump-world, after all.
Another memo, dated Jan. 5, initially laid the groundwork for a Supreme Court case on mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania, which did not go well for Trump. Ellis desperately tried to thread the needle between the Electoral Count Act’s restrictions of Pence’s power and somehow designating Pence as the ultimate decider of whether Trump remains president. She also said Pence should just throw out votes and protest states’ inability to meet the legal certification standard.
Ellis doesn’t come off as having the soundest legal advice in these memos and she certainly didn’t do herself any favors by confirming their veracity on Twitter.
Wondering how Ellis thinks it’s responsible to keep this tweet up, yet here we are. Pence has stayed silent on the shady advice he was given from Ellis and the Jan. 6 committee is already racking up even more subpoenas against Trump associates and insurrection organizers. It’s anyone’s guess what the next round of questioning from the committee could bring, though you likely won’t read about it on the front pages of any newspaper anytime soon.