Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) made it clear on Sunday that she no longer sees the attack on the U.S. Capitol as “tragic,” adding that the real tragedy is how the “January 6 hostages” have been treated.
Besides echoing former President Donald Trump’s revisionist rhetoric about the Jan. 6 insurrection, the MAGA lawmaker also declined to commit to certifying the 2024 presidential election results if Trump were to lose again.
During a wide-ranging interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, the fourth-ranking House Republican refused to offer any criticism of the twice-impeached ex-president, even going so far as to double down on Trump’s recent Hitleresque “poisoning the blood” remarks about migrants. “Our border crisis is poisoning Americans through fentanyl,” she declared.
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Stefanik’s full-throated defense of the GOP presidential frontrunner, meanwhile, comes as the House Republican Conference chair is reportedly being considered by Trump as a potential running mate. When asked on Sunday whether she’d be willing to serve as vice president, Stefanik refused to discuss any conversations she’s had with the ex-president but did note she’d “be honored to serve in the next Trump administration.”
In the wake of the three-year anniversary of the Capitol riots, President Joe Biden delivered a speech condemning Trump as a “threat to democracy” while excoriating Republicans for softening their stance on the seditious attack and attempts to rewrite history. Recent polls find that the vast majority of Republicans feel it’s time to move on from Jan. 6 and that Biden’s electoral victory was illegitimate. Additionally, over one-third of GOP voters believe the baseless conspiracy theory that FBI operatives organized and perpetrated the insurrection.
NBC News anchor Kristen Welker noted on Sunday that immediately following the riots, Stefanik took to the House floor and described the attack as a “truly tragic day for America” and that the rioters were “anti-American and must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Pointing out that Trump has since referred to Jan. 6 as a “beautiful day” and referred to those serving time for storming the Capitol as “hostages,” Welker wondered if Stefanik still sees “that day as tragic” and that the rioters should still be held responsible under the law.
“Well, first of all, Kristen, as typical for NBC and the biased media, you played one excerpt of my speech,” the New York congresswoman shot back. “I stand by my comments that I made on the House floor. I stood up for election integrity, and I challenged and objected to the certification of the state of Pennsylvania because of the unconstitutional overreach. So, I absolutely stand by my floor speech. I am proud to support President Trump.”
After Welker reminded Stefanik that Trump’s post-election lawsuits were shot down by the courts over 60 times, the NBC News anchor once again asked Stefanik if she still believed the Capitol attack was “tragic” and whether the perpetrators should be prosecuted. The congresswoman, meanwhile, decided to fully parrot the former president.
“I have concerns about the treatment of January 6 hostages,” she proclaimed. “We have a rule in Congress of oversight over our treatments of prisoners. And I believe that we’re seeing the weaponization of the federal government against not just President Trump, but we’re seeing it against conservatives. We’re seeing it against Catholics.”
Stefanik continued: “And that's one of the reasons why I’m so proud to serve in the Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Government, because the American people want answers. They want transparency. And they understand that, as you look across this country, there seems to be two sets of rules. If your last name is Clinton or it’s Biden, you get to live by a different set of rules than if you're an everyday, patriotic American.”
While raging about the numerous criminal indictments that Trump has faced, claiming they are “undemocratic” and “shredding our Constitution,” Stefanik also applauded herself for voting against certifying the 2020 election results in the state of Pennsylvania.
“You mentioned Pennsylvania. Would you vote to certify and will you vote to certify the results of the 2024 election, no matter what they show?” Welker pressed.
“Well, I voted not to certify the state of Pennsylvania because, as we saw in Pennsylvania and other states across the country, that there was unconstitutional acts circumventing the state legislature and unilaterally changing election law,” Stefanik replied.
The Meet the Press moderator then asked whether Stefanik could commit to certifying this year’s presidential election results if Trump were to lose.
“We will see if this is a legal and valid election,” the congresswoman answered. “What we’re seeing so far is that Democrats are so desperate they’re trying to remove President Trump from the ballot. That is the suppression of the American people. And the Supreme Court is taking that case up in February. That should be a nine to zero to allow President Trump to appear on the ballot because that’s the American people's decision to make this November.”
Trying once again, Welker said that she didn’t hear Stefanik “committing to certifying the election results,” wondering if she’d only commit to certifying the results if Trump was victorious.
“If they are constitutional,” Stefanik shot back.
“Does that mean if former President Trump wins?” Welker interjected.
“No, it means if they are constitutional. What we saw in 2020 was unconstitutional circumventing of the Constitution, not going through state legislatures when it comes to changing election law,” Stefanik reacted. “And we’re seeing this in my home state of New York, Kristen. We are seeing Democrats try to steal the election and illegally gerrymander congressional districts that we fairly won and are fair line. So, I see this at a very local level, as well as the unconstitutional overreach we saw at the national level in 2020.”
Stefanik was again reminded that Trump and his allies lost all of their “election integrity” court cases and Trump’s own independent investigations came up short in their attempts to prove the election was stolen. The congresswoman responded by calling Biden and Democrats “the real threat to democracy.”
