The words in question were added to the censure document late last week at a meeting of the Republican National Committee in Salt Lake City
One early draft, which denounced the two lawmakers for taking part in a House select committee investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack described the inquiry as “a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in nonviolent and legal political discourse.”
In the course of editing the language, a person involved in the process said, the words “nonviolent and legal” were ultimately replaced by “legitimate” throughout various drafts.
The resolution was sent to members in a pre-dawn email on Friday that included minutes from the previous committee deliberations at the winter meeting and four other resolutions that were voted on during the general session. The email arrived in members’ inboxes around 1:40 a.m.
Two RNC members told CNN it went directly to their spam/junk folders because it was a computer-generated RNC email as opposed to an email directly from Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
An original draft of the resolution was never circulated to all 168 voting members, only the final draft that was emailed out Friday morning.
In the past, the committee has printed out copies of the resolutions and had them at members’ seats when they arrive for the general session. This was not the case at the meeting in Salt Lake City, and several members were alerted to the language surrounding January 6 by members of the press while the actual session was taking place.
Not all top Republicans, however, were displeased.
