Donald Trump Jr stays silent on social amid uproar over his texts to Meadows

President’s eldest son begged Meadows: ‘He has to lead’

Donald Trump Jr has remained silent about his own texts to Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, following the revelation that he pleaded with his father’s top aide to convince ex-President Donald Trump to command the rioters to leave the Capitol.

Hours after lawmakers voted to hold Mr Meadows in contempt of Congress for ceasing his cooperation with the January 6 committee, Mr Trump had only commented once on his Twitter and Facebook accounts, and rather than addressing his own messages chose to share an article accusing a Democrat on the panel of spreading misinformation.

“We shouldn’t be surprised given his actions over the past 5 years and given how my emails magically had their dates changed, but he will continue to do this till someone steps up & says enough!” he wrote of Rep Adam Schiff, a favourite enemy of Republicans.

We shouldn’t be surprised given his actions over the past 5 years and given how my emails magically had their dates changed, but he will continue to do this till someone steps up & says enough!

Schiff Doctored J6 Texts Between Mark Meadows & Jim Jordan https://t.co/PIHl5LASfK

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) December 15, 2021

His tweet referred to a story in The Federalist revealing that staff for the January 6 committee had changed the punctuation on a portion of a text message from a lawmaker (which The Federalist confirmed was Rep Jim Jordan) and omitted parts of it. The overall content of the message was reported by The Federalist to have been a word document shared by Joseph Schmitz, former Pentagon inspector general, of an article in favour of Mike Pence interfering in the 2020 election certification.

The right-wing news blog and Mr Trump Jr both faulted Mr Schiff for characterising that the text was quoting the words of Mr Schmitz, though the text of the original message viewed by The Independent did not mention Mr Schmitz’s name nor did it identify that it was quoted from an upcoming article.

It also did not change the fact that the lawmaker, identified by a colleague to The Federalist as Mr Jordan, was sharing articles in favour of overturning the 2020 election hours before rioters stormed the Capitol on January 6.

Mr Trump Jr was revealed in texts released by Mr Meadows to the January 6 committee to have pleaded with the White House chief of staff to prod his father into action.

“He’s got to condemn this s*** ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough.

"He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand,” added Mr Trump Jr.

Mr Meadows reportedly texted a response to the president’s son, writing: “I’m pushing it hard.”

Mr Trump Jr’s attempts to urge his father and White House aides to take action on the day of January 6 shows just how much pressure Mr Trump was facing from his own inner circle to condemn the riot after it began, though it would be hours until the president reappeared on video and urged his supporters to leave the Capitol building.

Along with lawmakers, journalists on Capitol Hill, top Fox News hosts including Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity were on the list of Trump supporters bombarding Mr Meadows’ phone on the day of the attack.

Mr Trump’s supporters began marching to the Capitol from his rally around 1pm on the day of the siege, and had forcibly breached the building by just after 2pm.

The president finally issued a video statement just after 4.15pm, telling the rioters that he loved them but they “have to go home now”.