WASHINGTON — Poor Elise Stefanik.
She was so able to graduate from Congress into the massive leagues, abandoning her messy insurrectionist pals within the Home Republican Convention to change into the following esteemed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
She labored so arduous to win over President Donald Trump for this job. She spent years on it, and literally sold her soul, actually. The Elise Stefanik that got here to Congress in 2014 was nothing just like the Elise Stefanik of right now. Again then, she was a average Republican. An alum of George W. Bush’s administration, her first management function within the Home got here in 2017, when she co-chaired the Tuesday Group, a gaggle of average Republicans who served as a counterbalance to the far-right Freedom Caucus.
When former Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) ran for president in 2012, she helped with debate preparation for his operating mate, former Home Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Each Romney and Ryan have since change into a few of Trump’s harshest GOP critics.
However not Stefanik. Someplace alongside the way in which, she made a shrewd calculation: one of the best ways to advance her profession was to utterly reinvent herself and enchantment to probably the most excessive factions of her celebration. That’s, enchantment to Trump.
She endorsed him after he received the Republican presidential main in 2016. When an previous “Entry Hollywood” tape surfaced weeks earlier than the November election, exhibiting Trump making offensive remarks about girls, Stefanik referred to as it “mistaken,” however stood by her endorsement. Trump ultimately received, and so did she.
By 2019, her MAGA-fication was in full pressure. She strongly opposed Trump’s impeachment. On Jan. 6, 2021, Stefanik voted to overturn the outcomes of the November election that Trump misplaced to Joe Biden. She fueled Trump’s lie that the election had been stolen from him by widespread voter fraud, which didn’t exist — the identical lie that, hours earlier than she forged her vote, Trump used to incite a violent rebellion on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
When the Home fashioned a committee to analyze the Jan. 6 assault, Stefanik, wanting to be seen defending Trump, nonsensically blamed then-Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for the rebellion. Most Home Republicans rallied behind Trump amid the committee’s hearings, however Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) caught to the information and continued to sentence his actions. So that they ousted her from her function because the Home Republican Convention Chair. Guess who was there to take over her prime spot?
Stefanik nonetheless wanted to lift her nationwide profile, together with her eye on changing into Trump’s vice presidential decide the following time round. In November 2022, she made the purpose of changing into the primary Republican — and the highest-level one — to endorse him for president in 2024. The truth that actually everybody else in her celebration was livid at Trump for costing them Home seats within the midterms solely made it higher. She stood out as Trump’s most loyal loyalist defender ever. Verify.
In December 2023, Stefanik used a Home listening to to make a giant present of attacking university presidents for permitting free speech on their campuses. The video went viral and she or he obtained the nationwide consideration she needed. Verify.
It was all going in response to plan. By January 2024, she was giving campaign speeches for Trump that gave the impression of Trump had written them himself. Her identify was being floated as his potential decide for vice chairman. Trump was strongly supporting her reelection to her congressional seat in New York: “SMART, STRONG, and TOUGH — she has my Full and Complete Endorsement!” he screamed on social media. Verify.
She received reelection in November. So did Trump. Lower than per week later, he nominated Stefanik to characterize the U.S. on the United Nations. Not the identical as vice chairman, however nonetheless fairly fancy. Verify.
Scorching rattling, Stefanik was shut — so shut! — to abandoning her days of being simply one other member of Congress clamoring for Trump’s consideration. Her U.N. nomination had already superior from a Senate committee in January. The one factor standing between her and her triumphant ascension to a world physique was a single Senate vote to verify her.
Like a highschool senior days away from graduating magna cum laude, Stefanik had even been reminiscing recently in regards to the good occasions that she and her Home colleagues have had, posting throwback pictures on social media about particular moments collectively.
“2017 Throwbacks!” reads a Wednesday post that features a picture of her being sworn into Congress and group pictures with colleagues. “This was my third yr in Congress, an fascinating one for certain. After my first re-elect below my belt and the unimaginable election of President Trump in 2016, we had been arduous at work delivering for the American folks.”
“2018 Throwbacks!” reads another post, from Thursday morning. “A troublesome, powerful midterm election cycle. Was honored to host President @realdonaldtrump to signal the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act at Fort Drum proper in my district!”
However hours after that put up, Stefanik’s desires of ditching the Home and getting into the higher echelons of MAGA greatness collapsed like a pyramid of empty beer cans in a frat home. Trump withdrew her nomination to the U.N. and despatched her again to the Home, saying they wanted her there given the celebration’s tight vote margins. His beautiful reversal got here amid GOP worries that they could lose two special elections in deep purple Florida — and presumably Stefanik’s seat — to Democrats.
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Who is aware of, perhaps she’ll get one other Trump administration appointment down the highway. Perhaps she’ll keep within the Home for some time, determining a brand new committee to hitch or new causes to take up together with her previous pals amid the highschool chaos.
However Elise Stefanik went MAGA for nothing.
