Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has sought to make herself the public face of Congress holding the line against antisemitism — but this is an "exercise on chutzpah," wrote Emily Tamkin in a blistering article for Slate.
This comes after Stefanik, one of Trump's closest allies in the House and a reported shortlister for his vice presidential running mate, gained prominence for her confrontation of university presidents about antisemitic hatred on campus in committee hearings, which humiliated multiple presidents into resigning.
And she is now leaning into that role more than ever, wrote Tamkin. "Last month, she went to Israel to address the Knesset Caucus for Jewish and Pro-Israel Students on Campuses Around the World, where she chastised U.S. President Joe Biden and praised former President Donald Trump, whose support for Israel she described as 'historic,"' she wrote. "On the same trip, she met with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog."
However, wrote Tamkin, "Though she presents herself as a champion against antisemitism, in reality, Stefanik is spreading it."
In particular, she continued, Stefanik has pushed the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory, a narrative of neo-Nazi origin that America is importing nonwhite people en masse to change the demographics of the country and reduce white people to a minority with no political power — sometimes, some purveyors of the theory argue, at the behest of powerful, well-connected Jews in politics and culture. Among those who believe this was the shooter who carried out a massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
"In 2021, Stefanik 'adapted this despicable tactic for campaign ads,' as her regional paper, the Times Union, put it at the time. The ads referred to 'radical Democrats' granting amnesty to 'illegal immigrants' to 'create a permanent liberal majority,'" wrote Tamkin.
Nor was this a one-off: "In April of this year, the same month that she grilled Columbia University President Nemat Shafik about antisemitism ... Stefanik tweeted, 'George Soros is trying to fund the downfall of America by buying elections for radical Far Left politicians and corrupting the next generation to support terror groups,' implying that the Hungarian-born Jewish billionaire philanthropist is attempting to secretly control American democracy."
There's no way to know what's truly in Stefanik's heart, wrote Tamkin. But if she's going to gain this much of a national platform by posturing against antisemitism, "It only seems fair to ask that she, in turn, finally help the fight against antisemitism. Not siding with antisemitism in that fight might be a start."