'Unraveling': GOP rep calling for Ivy League leaders’ resignation mum on Trump’s Nazi rhetoric

18 December 2023

U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has helped lead the charge in calling for the resignation of three Ivy League university presidents since this month's DC hearing on antisemitism on college campuses.

CNN reports, "It was Stefanik's line of questioning" during the hearing "before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce that attracted the most attention from the roughly five hours of testimony."

In a Monday, December 18 report, Politico's Daniella Diaz points out, "All three university presidents equivocated when the New York Republican asked if calls for genocide against Jews would violate their campus codes of conduct, sparking a rush of notably bipartisan fury among elite academic institutions over their handling of public tension during the Israel-Hamas war. The moment looked poised to reshape Stefanik's public image as a one-time moderate turned Trump defender.

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The congressional reporter emphasizes Stefanik's "silence about Trump's remarks, which the Biden campaign likened to Hitler's, risks unraveling that shift."

The GOP leader, for days, has been unyielding in her criticism of hate speech used in academia, while she has failed to criticize the MAGA hopeful for using similar language.

"They let — I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. When they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They're poisoning the blood of our country," Trump said during the rally, referring to migrants.

Diaz writes:

After she went viral with her questioning of university presidents about hate speech on their campuses, the No. 4 House Republican declared to POLITICO that 'a reckoning' is due for those who don't stand up to antisemitism. Stefanik did not return repeated requests for comment, however, about Trump's weekend rhetoric — which echoed Adolf Hitler's use of the term 'blood poisoning' in his manifesto 'Mein Kampf,' where he criticized the mixing of races.

Diaz also notes, "Meanwhile, the Biden campaign escalated its anti-Trump pushback to a new level in a statement that likened the former president's comments about migrants to the Nazi leader and highlighted his recent statement that he would not be a dictator if elected, 'except for day one.'"

The GOP leader's silence, Diaz emphasizes, also "highlights a bigger problem that congressional Republicans are facing with their presidential frontrunner, who's famed for his use of offensive rhetoric, including open invocation of antisemitic tropes. The more he pushes the limits of campaign-trail commentary toward invective, the more Trump puts GOP lawmakers like Stefanik on defense — when they'd rather hit liberals as ivory-tower defenders of hateful speech."

The Messenger noted last month that the Stefanik's loyalty to the former president has made "her an important carrier of the MAGA message," and "a valuable asset on the campaign trail," according to Trump allies.

Diaz's full report is here.

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