Meadows, a North Carolina Republican who has championed Trump and fought hard against the president’s impeachment by the House, has not filed the papers to be a candidate at the next congressional deadline ahead of this Friday’s deadline in his state.
“I’m not only an ally, but will continue to be an ally,” Meadows told Politico’s Playbook newsletter, adding that he has had discussions with the president “on how we can work more closely together in the future” and did not want to have to resign from Congress after another election.
There is no specific role for Meadows, who is a former chair of the libertarian House Freedom Caucus, and he will continue to serve in Congress until something comes to fruition from the discussions taking place.
A spokesman for Meadows told Newsweek that there is “no plan in place” regarding a role with Trump.
“The hardest decision for me is that when you’re in the fight, you enjoy staying in the fight,” Meadows, who has battled hard for Trump’s agenda and stood with him against the Mueller investigation, told Politico.
“So this is not me shrinking away from a fight. In fact, it’s just going to be continuing to fight a different capacity, whether that’s officially as part of the Trump team or unofficially in my capacity as a sitting member of Congress.”
He has represented North Carolina’s 11th district since 2013 and serves on the Oversight and Reform Committee and the Transport and Infrastructure Committee.
In a statement to Axios, Meadows said: “My work with President Trump and his administration is only beginning.”
Meadows gave an impassioned speech against impeachment during the House vote on Wednesday evening.
“Now what they’re doing is they’re telling the American people that 233 Democrats deserve to decide who the president of the United States should be and disenfranchise 63 million voters,” Meadows said.
“When all is said and done, when the history of this impeachment is written, it will be said that my Washington Democrat friends couldn’t bring themselves to work with Donald Trump so they consoled themselves instead by silencing the will of those who did: The American people.”
The House voted to impeach Trump on the two articles—abuse of power and obstruction of Congress—over the president’s alleged Ukraine-related misconduct. Abuse of power was backed by 230 to 197 and obstruction of Congress by 229 to 198.
