| Hey there, Early Birds. Its somehow only Tuesday. Tips, comments, Christmas cookie recipes? You know what's up: earlytips@washpost.com. Thanks for waking up with us. | | |  | On the Hill | | All roads lead back to Mark Meadows. Says the Jan. 6 panel. |  (Washington Post illustration; Patrick Semansky/AP; iStock) | | | Lordy, there are texts: The Jan. 6 committee is heading into an escalating legal battle with allies of former president Donald Trump as it last night voted to hold his former chief of staff in criminal contempt. The unanimous decision from the panel, which includes Trump GOP foes Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), to hold ex-Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt now puts the decision in the hands of the full House, which is slated to take up the measure today. Meadows is the third Trump ally to be held in contempt by the committee investigating the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election by storming the Capitol and other means. The Justice Department has already indicted Steve Bannon on two contempt charges. If it decides to go that route with Meadows, the legal fight, however, could preclude the committee from getting all the information it's seeking (though until recently, Meadows was cooperating at least some with the committee). That could be problematic, as lawmakers on the Jan. 6 panel agreed last night that Meadows is at the heart of understanding Trump's efforts to overturn the election results, determining what role the White House played in planning the pre-attack rally and the reasoning behind why the former president did not immediately come out and condemn the attack on the Capitol. | | Cheney revealed a string of new texts messages, provided to the committee by Meadows, that were sent to him as the attack was underway. | | "These texts leave no doubt: the White House knew exactly what was happening at the Capitol. Members of Congress, the press, and others wrote to Mark Meadows as the attack was underway," Cheney said last night. Lawmakers, Fox News hosts, and even Donald Trump Jr. sent Meadows texts updating him on the deteriorating situation at the Capitol and urging him to get the president to condemn the violence. | - "We are under siege up here at the Capitol," one text to Meadows read.
- "They have breached the Capitol," read another text.
- Another: "Hey, Mark, protestors are literally storming the Capitol. Breaking windows on doors. Rushing in. Is Trump going to say something?"
- "There's an armed standoff at the House Chamber door."
- "We are all helpless," read another text sent by someone inside the Capitol.
- "He's got to condemn this [expletive] Asap. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough," Trump, Jr. texted Meadows. "We need an Oval address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand," he texted again.
| | Trump administration officials weighed in, too, urging Meadows to tell Trump to make a public statement ASAP: | - "POTUS has to come out firmly and tell protestors to dissipate. Someone is going to get killed."
- "Mark, he needs to stop this. Now."
- "TELL THEM TO GO HOME," read another text in all caps.
| | Fox News hosts pleaded with Meadows to get Trump to try to quell the violence, arguing the president was hurting the party and his own legacy by remaining silent as the pro-Trump mob breached Capitol security. | - "Hey Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home … this is hurting all of us … he is destroying his legacy." Laura Ingraham wrote.
- "Please get him on tv. Destroying everything you have accomplished," Brian Kilmeade wrote.
- "Can he make a statement? … Ask people to leave the Capitol," Sean Hannity urged.
| | "These non-privileged texts are further evidence of President Trump's supreme dereliction of duty during those 187 minutes," Cheney concluded. | Meadows is 'uniquely situated' | | In the 51-page contempt report released before the vote, the panel paints Meadows as an integral participant and witness to Trump's effort to delay and overturn the results of the election and propagate the message of widespread voter fraud. | | Meadows, according to the report, is "uniquely situated to provide critical information" about Jan. 6, "as well as efforts taken by public officials and private individuals." The report also notes Meadows was part of the small circle of witnesses to "critically important" communications inside the White House throughout Jan. 6, including with Trump — some of which he has already revealed in his new book. "Mr. Meadows was with or in the vicinity of then-President Trump on January 6 as he learned about the attack on the U.S. Capitol and decided whether to issue a statement that could stop the rioters," according to the report. The report also reveals Meadows was in touch with top Pentagon officials "non-stop" on Jan. 6 and "apparently knows if and when Mr. Trump was engaged in discussions regarding the National Guard's response to the Capitol riot, a point that is contested but about which Mr. Meadows provided documents" to the committee. The committee details several instances in which Meadows personally assisted Trump with efforts to overturn the election, including a trip to Georgia "to inspect a county audit related"; his participation in meetings with senior DOJ officials "about unsupported election-fraud claims and litigation"; and his participation in a White House meeting "with private individuals and others linked to Mr. Trump's re-election campaign during which Mr. Trump and others discussed seizing voting machines and invoking certain laws including the national Emergencies Act for election-related purposes because of purported fraud in the election." | | Text message from Fox News host Laura Ingraham to Mark Meadows during the Jan. 6 riot | "Hey Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home…this is hurting all of us…he is destroying his legacy." | | | | | | | Republicans prepare for debt ceiling fight next year |  The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021. Lawmakers aim to vote this week to raise the debt limit enough to get past the 2022 midterm elections. (Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg) | | | The debt limit wars to come: The Senate managed to raise the debt limit with a minimum of drama last week, with the House set to send a bill to President Biden's desk today. Don't get used to it. | | Republican lawmakers, anticipating their party "retaking one or both congressional majorities in next year's midterm elections, are already calling for and strategizing around a fiscal clash in 2023, insisting on using the threat of federal default to place new curbs on government spending and reduce the $28 trillion national debt," our colleague Mike DeBonis reports. | - "What they are envisioning is, at a minimum, a return to the brinkmanship seen the last time a Democratic president confronted a new Republican majority, in 2011. It already threatens to become the dominant domestic political clash ahead of the 2024 presidential election."
- "You have to use the tools you have to force change in this town," Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) told DeBonis. "That's not going to go away until people get their head out of their [hindquarters] and actually focus on spending money that we have and not printing money. . . . Then we can end brinkmanship. If you're going to keep spending money like drunken sailors, we're going to keep fighting."
| | Meanwhile, there was a meeting of Joes: Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), the main holdout of the $2 trillion Build Back Better bill, "spoke directly with Biden on Monday evening to discuss the path forward," our colleague Tony Romm reports. "Exiting the conversation, the senator told reporters the two talked about 'different iterations' of the bill, though Manchin declined to share specifics." | - "'Anything's possible here,' Manchin said about the prospects of a vote before Christmas. Asked if he intends to continue negotiating with the White House, he replied, 'I'm engaged, we're engaged.'"
| | |  | At the White House | | First in The Post: Biden administration eying new border models for asylum seekers |  An immigrant family from Haiti walks towards a gap in the U.S. border wall from Mexico on December 11, 2021 in Yuma, Arizona. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) | | | 👀Post Exclusive: "President Biden's immigration advisors are discussing proposals to set up European-style reception centers along the Mexico border that would transform the way asylum seekers are processed and potentially curb the large-scale release of migrants into the United States," administration officials and others with knowledge of the conversations told our colleague Nick Miroff. | - These people told Miroff that "the reception center model represents a possible breakthrough because it would reduce the number of illegal border-crossers issued a notice to appear in U.S. courts, the practice derided by Republicans as 'catch and release.' It also potentially offers Democrats a more palatable alternative to the Trump-era 'Remain in Mexico' program."
- "Katie Tobin, Biden's top immigration advisor on the National Security Council, said the administration's goal is to move in a direction 'where we are testing innovative ideas that are humane, that maintain the due process that's required in an asylum adjudication, but that get us away from a system where people wait five years for a decision.'"
- Such delays, she said in an interview with Miroff, are "not good for our country and not good for people who are really in need of protection."
| | |  | The Data | | | The drivers of consumer inflation, visualized: "The bumpy economic recovery has had policymakers, economists and American households grappling with greater price hikes for groceries, gas, cars, rent and just about everything else we need," our colleagues Alyssa Fowers and Rachel Siegel report. | - "Persistent supply chain backlogs and high consumer demand for goods have kept prices elevated. There is no clear answer for when that will change, leaving Americans to feel the strain in their pocketbooks in the meantime."
| | |  | The Media | | | |  | Viral | | | | AM/PM | | Looking for more analysis in the afternoon? | | | | Weekday newsletter, PM |  | | | | | | |
