Elise Stefanik THROWS DOWN With Kristen Welker After NBC Anchor Plays Clip Exposing Her Changing Tune on Jan. 6
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik battled NBC’s Kristen Welker over January 6 and the Republican’s claim that those being prosecuted for their actions in the riot are “hostages.”
The scuffle went down Sunday on Meet The Press, right after the third anniversary of the day that Donald Trump’s supporters — fueled by his lies about the 2020 election — besieged the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to overturn his election defeat.
The conversation heated up when Welker accused Stefanik of a flip-flop concerning the culpability of the rioters. The Meet the Press anchor played back Stefanik’s remarks just after the riot, in which she called it a “tragic day,” denounced the violence as “absolutely unacceptable,” “anti-American,” and said those responsible “must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
When asked if she still believes this, Stefanik railed against NBC and “the biased media.”
“You played one excerpt of my speech,” Stefanik said. “I stand by my comments that I made on the House floor. I stood up for election integrity, and I challenged and objected to the certification of the state of Pennsylvania because of the unconstitutional overreach. So I absolutely stand by my floor speech.”
After Stefanik deflected in order to rail against President Joe Biden, Welker kept on topic by noting Trump’s failure to successfully dispute the 2020 election results in court. She then asked Stefanik again “Do you still think it was a tragic day? Do you think that the people who stormed the Capitol should be held responsible to the full extent of it?”
Stefanik answered by referring to the Jan. 6 prisoners as “hostages.”
I have concerns about the treatment of January 6th hostages. I have concerns we have a role in Congress of oversight over our treatment of prisoners. And I believe that we’re 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. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m so proud to serve on the Select Committee on the weaponization of the government, because the American people want answers. They want transparency, and they understand that.
As you look across this country, there seems to be two sets of rules. If your last name is Clinton or it’s Biden, you get to live by a different set of rules than if you’re an everyday, patriotic American. I’ve been clear, Kristen. If you go back and play the full speech I gave on the House floor, I condemn the violence, just like I condemn the violence of the BLM riots. But I also, importantly, stood for election integrity and security of our elections, which if we don’t have that, we do not have a democracy. So the real threat to our democracy is these baseless witchhunt investigations and lawsuits against President Trump, whether it’s Tish James or whether we see in the D.C. circuit court. And that is undemocratic, and it’s shredding our Constitution.
The conversation went on from there — with Welker and Stefanik throwing down about whether the indictments of Hunter Biden and other Democrats disproves right-wing claims about a two-tiered system of justice in America.
Watch above via NBC.
