On this date one year ago,“Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled the current U.S. House Representative from New York’s 21st Congressional District, Elise Stefanik, who first won office for that seat back in the 2014 elections, when she was only 30 years old, setting a record at the time for being the youngest woman ever elected to Congress (since broken by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez). Her district only slightly leaned Republican when she got elected, so for her first two terms in office, her voting record reflected that, as she was one of the more moderate members of the House GOP… but admittedly, that’s a low bar to clear these days.
Everything started to change as she did the political calculus as her district has veered right. And as the investigations into Donald Trump accepting foreign assistance in the 2016 election started closing in on them, as Rep. Stefanik was one of many members of the House Intelligence Committee who was following the lead of Congressman Devin Nunes, claiming there was “no evidence” of any crime (oh, there was a bunch).
By the time Trump had AGAIN solicited foreign assistance, this time for the 2020 election, Elise Stefanik saw an opportunity to take the spotlight, pretending she was being “silenced” because Adam Schiff enforced hearing rules and didn’t allow Devin Nunes to cede the remainder of his time to her, and virtually overnight reinventing herself as a “ride or die” Trump supporter. Her role in the hearings was essential as Republican members of the committee like Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes went after witnesses like Fiona Hill and Marie Yovanovitch painting an ultimately sexist angle to the proceedings (and the GOP were already losing the support of suburban women), so the Republicans needed the optics of having Stefanik do all their heavy lifting to avoid the sort of spectacle that they set up during say, the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford less than a year earlier.
Stefanik made the most of her time during the day to act like Trump was the victim, before running on Fox News afterwards to try to rack up bonus points. One of the low lights was when she went as far as to claim Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff was “unfit” to be the Chairman of the House Intelligence community, before using all of the bad press she got from the mainstream media for the partisan sniping she made in Trump’s name during the impeachment hearings as an excuse to fundraise for 2020 and blow any potential GOP Primary challengers out of the water with ads.
And when we say she went “ride or die” with Trump, we meant it, as she was even given a chance to speak at the 2020 RNC where she continued insisting Trump never committed a crime when he withheld aid from Ukraine unless they announced an investigation into Hunter Biden, and framing Trump’s first impeachment as “an attack on you”, where the “you” was “Republican voters”.
Elise Stefanik won re-election in 2020 with 59% of the vote, and went back to Washington, D.C. to continue her mad dash to the right:
- December 18th, 2019: Stefanik ignores her Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
- May 15th, 2020: Stefanik votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
- December 10th, 2020: Stefanik signs her name to an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, begging them to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The same election that she won re-election in.
- January 7th, 2021: Elise Stefanik votes for the objection to the electoral college’s votes in the 2020 election, a failure to send any sort of message that he wasn’t intimidated or sympathetic to those who attacked the Capitol to attempt a violent coup.
- January 13th, 2021: Rep. Stefanik votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers.
- February 4th, 2021: Elise Stefanik votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because she wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
- February 25th, 2021: Stefanik votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
- March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Stefanik votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
- March 3rd, 2021: Elise Stefanik votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
- March 10th, 2021: Stefanik votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because she feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
- March 17th, 2021: Rep. Stefanik votes against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
- May 19th, 2021: Elise Stefanik votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
Elise Stefanik’s rise in the GOP parallel’s the party’s overall descent into madness the past several years. As Congresswoman Liz Cheney “fell from grace” by daring to admit Trump legitimately lost the 2020 election and stoked the attack on the Capitol, the vacuum created by Cheney’s removal from GOP Conference chair was immediately filled by Stefanik, more than happy to tow the line of pandering to Trump’s ego again.
And she’s not done. Stefanik has continued propagating Trump’s “Big Lie” that the election was stolen from him, six months after it was all over, and four months after the Capitol attack. She’s claiming it’s NANCY PELOSI who “bears responsibility” from Trump having incited a mob to storm the halls of Congress, and is currently palling up to Scott Presler, an Islamophobic conspiracy theorist who was present on the Capitol grounds on January 6th, calling it not an act of domestic terrorism, but a “civil rights” protest. There is no bottom to the extent she’s willing to lie, and the sooner she’s out of power, the better.
One Year Ago, September 5th, 2020: Elise Stefanik (NY)…Original Profile
Two Years Ago, September 5th, 2019: Antonio Sabato, Jr. (CA)
Three Years Ago, September 5th, 2018: Paul Nehlen (WI)…2018 Update
Four Years Ago, September 5th, 2017: Paul Nehlen (WI)… Original Profile
Five Years Ago, September 5th, 2016: Matthew Erickson (MN)
Six Years Ago, September 5th, 2015: Michelle Bachmann (MN)… 2015 Update
Seven Years Ago, September 5th, 2014: Michelle Bachmann (MN)…Original Profile