GOP Rep Elise Stefanik again reminds us that there are NO good Republicans

She defends Jan 6 and already refuses to accept the 2024 results

Well, it looks like I have a new series of articles for 2024 reminding us that “there are no good Republicans.” This began a few weeks ago with my article: “Nikki Haley again reminds us that there are no good Republicans” after her comments on the Civil War.

The new entry in the series focuses on GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik and her comments Sunday on NBC’s Meet The Press where she both defended the Jan 6 terrorists and refused to accept the 2024 election results—unless Trump wins that is.

For starters, Stefanik—snarling and angry as usual—was outraged that Meet the Press host Kristen Welker would play a clip of Stefanik’s actual words on the House floor days after MAGA’s Jan 6 terrorist attack. At that time, Stefanik stated, “This has been a truly tragic day for America,” she continued on to say: “violence in any form is absolutely unacceptable. It is anti-American and must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

After that clip played, Stefanik lashed out because NBC had the audacity to…wait for it…play a clip of Stefanik! She whined that playing her words to undermine her current lies was somehow unfair, stating “typical for NBC and the biased media, you played one excerpt of my speech.”

Stefanik was especially angered that NBC would play her 2021 speech and then ask how does that square with her beloved Trump calling Jan 6 a “beautiful” day and labeling the MAGA terrorists who attacked our Capitol as “hostages.” Did Stefanik then explain why there was an inconsistency between the two? Of course not.

The third ranking GOP House member instead added, “I absolutely stand by my floor speech. I am proud to support President Trump.” Not even sure how you can do both but as I often say: The GOP has no shame, so calling them hypocrites is meaningless.

The New York Republican—after the clip was played of her literally demanding that everyone involved in the Jan 6 attack “must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” defended the attackers. Stefanik declared that “I have concerns about the treatment of January 6th hostages.”

Hostages?!!  That’s the identical word Trump has repeatedly used to describe the Jan 6 terrorists, including on the third anniversary of the Jan 6^th attack. In fact, on Saturday, Stefanik’s “Fuhrer” Trump called on Joe Biden during campaign events to release the MAGA terrorists, stating, “Release the J6 hostages, Joe. Release them, Joe.” This would be akin to demanding the release of people charged for the 9/11 terrorist attack on the very anniversary of 9/11. 

Now these “hostages” Stefanik are referring to are actually the worst of the worst. These people include Albuquerque Cosper Head, who was sentenced to seven and a half years for assaulting D.C. Police Officer Michael Fanone by yanking him away from police lines and shouting, “I got one!”  He then helped the crowd drag Fanone away, tase him and rob him of his badge and radio.

And Thomas Webster, a retired New York City police officer who viciously assaulted a D.C. officer on the front lines of the Capitol riot and was sentenced to ten years in jail.  Then there’s Julian Khater who was sentenced to over six years in prison after he pepper-sprayed three police officers in the face, including Brian Sicknick, who died the next day of multiple strokes.

And, of course, there are members of Trump’s para-military organization “The Proud Boys” who Trump told at the September 2020 presidential debate to “stand by.” The Proud Boys did in fact “stand by” and when Trump signaled that Jan 6 was the day for action, they organized on behalf of Trump to stop the Jan 6 certification. Various leaders of the organization have since been convicted in federal court of Seditious Conspiracy along with other crimes and sentenced to decades in prison.  Finally, let’s not forget The Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes who also was sentenced to 18 years after being convicted of Seditious Conspiracy.

It's these people who savagely beat police officers and/or plotted for weeks in advance of Jan 6 in support of Trump to attack the Capitol who Stefanik and Trump view as “hostages.” In reality, they are Trump’s terrorists.

But Stefanik wasn’t done reminding us that there are no good Republicans. Not content to defend the Jan 6 terrorists, here was Stefanik beginning the radicalization process for the next Jan 6. When Welker then asked her, “Would you vote to certify and will you vote to certify the results of the 2024 election?” Stefanik refused to commit. Instead, she played more dangerous games, stating, “We will see if this is a legal and valid election.” And then in true Trumpian fashion, she began to provide excuses for Trump when he loses in 2024, stating, “What we're seeing so far is that Democrats are so desperate, they're trying to remove President Trump from the ballot. That is a suppression of the American people.”

To people like MAGA firster Stefanik, upholding the US Constitution by enforcing the 14^th Amendment is somehow a threat to democracy, but Trump’s attempted coup and Jan 6 attack is acceptable.

Welker pressed Stefanik again on committing to the 2024 election results to which the angry Stefanik responded, “If they are constitutional.” The Republican then quickly pivoted to spewing Trump’s 2020 election lies, claiming “what we saw in 2020 was unconstitutional circumventing of the – of the Constitution.” In response, Welker did push back with some strong words, saying: “Trump, his allies did take their case, their concerns about the election to court more than 60 times. They lost every time.” She added, “Mr. Trump hired two independent firms to investigate that. They came up short as well as the federal agency responsible for overseeing election security, CISA, said that the 2020 election was the most secure in American history.”

You would think that would be the end of it. But Stefanik understands her beloved orange creature Trump is watching her so she must “puch back.” So instead of moving on as Welker wanted, Stefanik desperately declared about the 2020 election, “I think it's important, because the American people understand that it was not a fair election.”

No, the American people don’t believe that. Rather, it’s only a big chunk of the GOP base and all of MAGA. And that is all Stefanik cares about.

Trump, Stefanik and MAGA are a cancer to our Republic. And like with that deadly disease, the options are to either let that cancer kill our Republic or remove it. Those are truly the stakes in 2024.

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