'No one should want to be vice president this badly': Stefanik blasted over 'baseless' stunt

22 May 2024

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) is repeating a familiar pattern of filing an ethics complaint against someone involved in former President Donald Trump's legal proceedings.

On Tuesday, Stefanik filed an official complaint against Judge Juan Merchan — who is overseeing Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan — alleging a "conflict of interest" due to his daughter's work as a political consultant fundraising for Democratic candidates. The House Republican Conference chair told Axios she believed Merchan was "in clear violation of section 100.3(E)(1)(d)(iii) of the Rules of Judicial Conduct for the New York State Unified Court System as his family has enriched itself through anti-Trump fundraising mentioning this case directly."

"[Acquitting Trump would be] detrimental to Democrats, including clients of Judge Merchan's daughter," Stefanik's letter to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct read. "If, on the other hand, [Trump] is convicted, such a verdict would provide a fundraising windfall for Democrat clients of Judge Merchan's daughter."

In his latest column, MSNBC producer Steve Benen wrote that Stefanik's "baseless gesture" has become all too predictable in her efforts to ingratiate herself with the former president. Benen noted that Merchan is the fourth public official she's sent an official communication calling for an investigation into an entity attempting to hold Trump accountable.

"It’s hard not to wonder if her office has some kind of form letter in which names can simply be swapped out every time Stefanik wants to make Trump happy with a baseless gesture," Benen wrote.

Stefanik has so far filed complaints against Judge Arthur Engoron (who oversaw Trump's civil fraud trial), Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who initially sued the Trump Organization for fraud. Benen argued that Stefanik's latest stunt is merely her jockeying to become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's running mate.

"I continue to believe that no one should want to be vice president this badly, but just as notably, it’s unsettling to see a congressional leader engage in such tacticsm" Benen wrote. "We are talking about an episodic campaign in which Stefanik is targeting those who are engaged in administering justice — not because they’ve done anything wrong, but because they might play a role in holding one of her partisan allies accountable."

Stefanik has been one of the 45th president's biggest cheerleaders in Congress, and has even adopted some of his more recent language. In a January video, she referred to January 6 defendants as "hostages," using the exact same terminology Trump has used to describe the mob of his supporters who ransacked the U.S. Capitol and tried to overturn an election by force.

The House GOP Conference chair has also scrubbed her own congressional website of a statement in which she decried the actions of January 6 rioters and demanded their prosecution. Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), who preceded Stefanik as House Republican Conference chair and who sat on the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, slammed Stefanik on social media for the erasure.

"[Stefanik] will have to explain how and why she morphed into a total crackpot," Cheney tweeted, adding that "history, and our children, deserve to know."

Click here to read Benen's column in full.

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