Stefanik, on NBC's Meet the Press, won't commit to certifying 2024 presidential election results

Jan. 8—WASHINGTON — Rep. Elise M. Stefanik made a rare appearance on a mainstream television news network for an interview on NBC's Meet the Press program on Sunday where she declined to commit to certifying the 2024 presidential election results. She called into question the validity of voting rule changes made in New York and other states.

Rep. Stefanik, R-Willsboro, who has been the House Republican Conference chair since 2021, sat for an interview with Kristen Welker for the program. It's one of just a handful of one-on-one interviews the congresswoman has given on non-conservative media since she took that position.

Sunday was just a day after the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, when protesters supporting former President Donald J. Trump attempted to stop the certification of state elector votes cast for President Joseph R. Biden. Stefanik had been prominent in that case, pushing arguments that a number of states had unconstitutionally amended their voting rules. She objected to the slate of electors from Pennsylvania, and was in the middle of a speech explaining her objection when the Capitol building was breached and legislators were evacuated ahead of hours of tension and incursions by rioters.

On Sunday, Stefanik pointed to her objections to the 2020 results and said she may object to the 2024 results for similar reasons.

"We will see if this is a legal and valid election," she said. "What we're seeing so far is that Democrats are so desperate they are trying to remove President Trump from the ballot. That is a suppression of the American people, and the Supreme Court is taking that case up in February. That should be 9 to 0, allowing President Trump to remain on the ballot."

Stefanik raised concerns about voting procedures in New York, which have changed in a few ways since the 2020 election. Despite the failure of a statewide referendum to expand mail-in voting in 2022, Democratic leaders pushed through another law change in 2023 that expanded mail-in voting through a different avenue. Democrats also scored a victory in the state court system late last year, aiming to redraw New York's congressional district maps for the 2024 election.

"I see this on a very local level, as well as the unconstitutional overreach we saw in 2020," Stefanik said.

Despite the claims of Stefanik and other Republican officials over the 2020 election, many officials including the Trump administration's election security chief, have repeatedly testified that the 2020 election was free, fair and uninfluenced by any foreign actor.

When the House returned to session after the Jan. 6 attack, Stefanik gave a speech decrying the violence seen that day, but since then has joined with Trump and other members of the Republican party in downplaying the events of Jan. 6.

In her interview on Sunday, Stefanik said the people prosecuted for breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6 are "hostages" and political prisoners, being unfairly punished for their political views rather than illegal actions.

"I have concerns about the treatment of Jan. 6 hostages," Stefanik said. "I have concerns. We have a role in Congress of oversight over our treatment of prisoners and I believe that we are 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 is a Catholic, although she does not regularly highlight her faith. President Biden is also prominently a member of the Catholic church.

In her interview, the congresswoman denied the allegation from Biden that Trump, with whom Stefanik is closely aligned, poses a threat to democracy if he is reelected.

Stefanik said Biden is instead the threat to democracy, pointing to efforts by some Democratic officials to remove Trump from the primary ballot in their states. Those officials have argued that Trump played a role in the Jan. 6 attack, and therefore is ineligible to hold office as he participated in an insurrection.

"Joe Biden and Democrats are a threat to democracy," she said. "We see them attempting to remove President Trump from the ballot. We saw this in Colorado and Maine. That is a suppression of the American people and the American people's ability to cast their ballots this November."

In her interview, Stefanik was also asked about her thoughts on terminology used by Trump that has raised bipartisan concerns. Trump, in speeches at public events, has said immigrants are "poisoning the blood" of our country, and has called his political foes, including Democrats, "vermin" who need to be removed from the country. Many have pointed to how vitriolic, dehumanizing and dangerous those words are, and pointed to how similar they sound to points iterated most vocally by German Nazis during the 1930s and 1940s, amid their genocide of Jewish people, disabled people, Catholics, the LGBTQ+ community and their political foes.

Stefanik defended Trump's use of that terminology, connecting it to the fentanyl and opioid crisis.

"Our border crisis is poisoning Americans through fentanyl, it is poisoning people, including those in my district, who are dying from overdoses of fentanyl," she said.

There is no evidence that people crossing the U.S. southern border to seek asylum are bringing illegal drugs with them, and all of the migrants who are being bused to New York by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott have been screened for any illegal substances multiple times before they reach the region.

Most illegal drugs enter the U.S. through legal ports of entry, brought by U.S. citizens, according to multiple public policy institutes including the libertarian Cato Institute. Maritime borders also play a part in the smuggling of fentanyl, also most frequently done by U.S. citizens.