Mark Meadows says Trump was 'mortified' after the Capitol riot and afraid he'd be banned from Twitter

• Mark Meadows wrote in his new book that Trump was "mortified" after the Capitol insurrection.
• He wrote that Trump was worried about media coverage and afraid he'd be banned by Twitter.

Former President Donald Trump was "mortified" in the wake of the January 6 Capitol riot, Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, wrote in his new book.

"In the aftermath of the attack, President Trump was mortified," Meadows wrote in "The Chief's Chief."

Trump "knew that the media would take this terrible incident and twist it around. He also knew that his days on Twitter were probably numbered," the book said.

Trump was ultimately booted off most major social media platforms in the wake of the failed insurrection, including Facebook and Twitter, which cited the threat of additional violence. Multiple reports have also said that Trump watched the riot play out on television from his perch at the White House and ignored pleas from White House advisors and national security officials to step in and call off his supporters who were storming the Capitol.

When he did release a video as the violence was unfolding, Trump was sharply criticized for repeating the same lies about the election that provoked the frenzied mob in the first place, and for telling the rioters that "you're very special" and "we love you."

Meadows wrote that Trump genuinely believes the election was "rigged" by Democrats and that he legitimately won a second term in 2020. Meadows himself wholeheartedly endorsed these false claims both while in the White House and in his memoir, presenting baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud that he barely attempted to substantiate.

Meadows wrote that Trump repeatedly told him, "'If I lost, I would have no problem admitting it. I would sit back and retire and probably have a much easier life. But I didn't lose. People need me to get back to work. We're not done yet.'"

Elsewhere in the memoir, Meadows falsely claimed that the 81 million votes Biden won in the 2020 election did not represent a "real number" and that the election was plagued by widespread voter fraud. He also wrote that Trump was never more "despondent" than when the Supreme Court rejected a longshot bid by Texas to throw the 2020 election to Trump.

Meadows' assertions in his book echo much of the rhetoric from the Trump camp in the aftermath of the election. The former chief of staff made broad and unspecified claims of election malfeasance and voter fraud, the majority of which have been disproven and debunked by courts and election officials across the country.

The 2020 election saw record-high voter turnout, including by mail, and an unprecedented number of citizens stepping up to serve their communities as election workers. The election was also secure from foreign interference and technology vulnerabilities because of widespread use of paper ballots and voting machines with verifiable paper trails.

In last year's election, Biden won the most votes of any candidate in US history — about 15 million more votes than Hillary Clinton won in 2016. Trump also grew his voter base, expanding his vote total from 63 million votes in 2016 to 74 million in 2020.

In all, nonpartisan election officials and cybersecurity experts concluded that, contrary to the former president's claims, the 2020 election was the safest and most secure in US history.

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.