A month ago, I praised New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik for calling out now former Harvard University President Claudine Gay along with former UPenn President Liz Magill and MIT President Sally Kornbluth for tolerating campus anti-Semitism. However, I qualified my praise:
While Stefanik certainly deserves credit for exposing academia's tolerance of anti-Semitism at the highest level, I nevertheless do not trust her any more than I trust the presidents of Harvard, MIT and UPenn.
My problem with Stefanik has been her promotion of election conspiracy theories constructed out of whole cloth, her attempts to overturn the 2020 election and claims that Nancy Pelosi was responsible for the attacks on January 6th. There's a very good chance that Stefanik doesn't actually believe this rubbish, but said it to curry favor with defeated, former President Donald Trump and rise in the House Republican leadership. It's bad enough when one actually believes one's own stupidity. To make a point of sinking to the level of a Steve Bannon descends the depths of disingenuousness.
Fast forward one month later. During an appearance on NBC's Meet The Press this morning, Stefanik told host Kristen Welker she was concerned about "the treatment of January 6th hostages." Defeated, former President Donald Trump has frequently referred to those convicted of offenses arising from January 6th as "hostages" including last night at a rally in Clinton, Iowa.
Of course, such a claim is absurd. To call the January 6th insurrectionists "hostages" suggests they a) they are not bound by the law and b) did not have due process. But Stefanik was there to kiss Trump's large ass and she was only beginning.
Stefanik also will not commit to certifying the results of the 2024 presidential election unless it is "legal and valid". Read: Trump wins the election.
Not to undo herself, Stefanik saw fit to defend Trump's claims that migrants coming into the U.S. are "poisoning the blood of our country." Stefanik claimed the "poisoning the blood" comment refers to fentanyl. Stefanik said, "Let me be clear. Our border crisis is poisoning Americans through fentanyl."
Mind you, opioid deaths skyrocketed under Trump's watch including fentanyl. Furthermore, Trump made no mention of fentanyl when he uttered the words "poisoning the blood of our country." But, for Stefanik, this is about Trump, not truth.
It is fairly obvious Stefanik is campaigning to be Trump's running mate by professing her unquestioning loyalty to him in defending the indefensible. Stefanik is telling Trump that she speaks his language on January 6th, election certification and blood poisoning. She is telling Trump that she is no Mike Pence and will do his bidding concerning anything he asks of her regardless of its legality.
So long as Stefanik insists on pledging her loyalty to Trump over the Constitution, then it diminishes her contributions on exposing anti-Semitism on American university campuses and any other contributions she has made to the public good. It renders her unfit for public office.
I hope Trump selects Stefanik as his running mate for no other reason than for the opportunity for the American electorate to rebuke her and rebuke Donald Trump for a second time. Stefanik might not accept that outcome, but that's too damn bad.
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