During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Bream cited comments made earlier this week by Utah independent Senate candidate Evan McMullin, who said the incumbent senator “actively helped plan the effort to recruit fake electors and to overturn our election and American democracy.”

Both Senate candidates faced off in a debate on Monday, which was the first and only between the two with less than three weeks until the midterm elections. A poll by FiveThirtyEight showed that Lee is “clearly favored” to keep his Senate seat as he is projected to defeat McMullin 95 out of 100 times.

Meanwhile, in the texts to Meadows, Lee stated that he tried to find a way to declare former President Donald Trump as the winner of the 2020 election instead of Joe Biden, CNN reported last Tuesday.

“If a very small handful of states were to have their legislatures appoint alternative slates of delegates, there could be a path,” Lee wrote to Meadows on December 8, 2020, according to CNN.

On January 3, 2021, the Utah senator texted Meadows: “I only know that this will end badly for the President unless we have the Constitution on our side. And unless these states submit new slates of Trump electors pursuant to state law, we do not.”

The following day on January 4, Lee texted the former chief of staff: “I’ve been spending 14 hours a day for the last week trying to unravel this for him [Trump].”

Lee’s efforts were focused on the possibility that some states Biden won could potentially appoint pro-Trump Electoral College electors instead. However, he eventually voted to certify Biden’s victory.

Bream asked Lee to explain those texts, saying that McMullin said the “texts speak for themselves” about his alleged attempts to overturn Biden’s victory.

“There’s not a scintilla of truth to what he [McMullin] is suggesting there,” the Republican senator said. “The fact is, there were rumors circulating in the days and weeks leading up to January 6 [2021], rumors suggesting that some states would be shifting out their slates of electors. Now, as a U.S. senator, it was my job to open and count the electoral votes on January 6, and we were trying to narrow down what was truth and what was fiction.”

He continued: “I made phone calls to investigate the truthfulness of those rumors…not advocating; just investigating the truthfulness of them. That is the only scenario in which Congress would have had a role. I concluded after my investigation that the rumors were false and on that basis I voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

However, McMullin told Newsweek on Sunday that Lee’s text messages to Trump’s team “contradict” his statements on Fox News Sunday as well as what he said during the debate on Monday.

“Lee continues to lie about his role to avoid accountability. He lobbied Trump and his advisors to overturn the 2020 election saying, ‘If a very small handful of states were to have their legislatures appoint alternative slates of delegates, there could be a path,’” McMullin said.

“Senator Lee tried to overturn the will of the people and, in doing so, betrayed his oath to the Constitution. Nothing he says now can change the facts of his betrayal. It will be his legacy,” the independent Senate candidate added.

Later on during the interview on Sunday, Bream asked Lee about his text to Meadows on January 4, in which he told the then-chief of staff that there could be a path forward with state legislatures, telling Lee “that path forward would suggest that you were at some point on board with the idea,” in reference to alleged efforts to change the 2020 election outcome.

“No, look, the point here was that there was only one path and [with] that path, I was trying to get the White House and the [former] President’s team to acknowledge that was the only path if a state concluded that it incorrectly certified the results of its election, and on that basis shifted out it’s slates of electors that would be the only way of doing it.”

He added: “My point there was to say we’ve got to figure out whether this is the case and I wanted the [former] President’s team to acknowledge that would be the only scenario in which there would be any role for Congress. [But], there wasn’t, and on that basis, I voted to certify.”

Lee, McMullin Face Off in Only Debate

During Monday’s debate with McMullin, Lee confirmed that Biden won the presidential election “fairly,” despite having “room for debate” over whether some states carried out their elections “better” than others.

In addition, McMullin accused Lee of voting to certify the 2020 election results “the same way someone knows a plot that isn’t quite working out.”

Update [10/23/2022] 4:55 p.m. ET: the story has been update to include comments from Evan McMullin.