Published on November 16, 2019 by Jeanine Marie Russaw
New York GOP Congresswoman Elise Stefanik was in the spotlight Friday aftertaking aimat 10-term California Congressman Adam Schiff during that day’s impeachment inquiry hearing that featured the testimony of former U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
The 35-year-old Republican representative began reading previous tweets Schiff posted along with quotes from public appearances he made, hitting back at the politician for going against the House Intelligence Committee’s wish to have a whistleblower give testimony at the hearings.
“The chairman refused to allow us to put these into the record with unanimous consent,” Stefanik said. “As we know, it is important to protect whistleblowers from retaliation and firing…but in this case, the fact that we are getting criticized for statements he, himself, made earlier in the process shows the duplicity and abuse of power we see.”
Earlier reports noted that Schiff “repeatedly shut down” Stefanik during the hearing, saying she was “not recognized” to speak as she directed a line of questioning toward Yovanovitch.
During Schiff’s interruptions, Stefanik was backed by Republican Congressman Devin Nunes, who asked: “You’re gagging the young lady from New York?”
“Once again, Adam Schiff flat out REFUSES to let duly elected Members of Congress ask questions to the witness, simply because we are Republicans,” Stefanik tweeted later that day. “His behavior is unacceptable and he continues to abuse his Chairmanship.”
She once worked in the White House
After graduating Harvard in 2006, Stefanik served in the West Wing of the White House as part of President George W. Bush’s Domestic Policy Council Staff until 2009.
According to her official biography, she worked in the Chief of Staff’s office, “where she assisted in overseeing the policy development process on all economic and domestic policy issues.”
Her platform aims to stimulate job growth in her district
As representative of New York’s 21st district, Stefanik was once an employee of her family’s business, Premium Plywood Products. She attributed her time at the small company to her appreciation of “the values of hard work, perseverance, challenges, and risk that go along with building, operating and growing small businesses that provide jobs in today’s Upstate economy.”
She was the youngest woman elected to Congress five years ago
Stefanik was 30 years old when she won office in 2014, making her the youngest woman ever elected to Congress at the time.
“The outcome of the 2014 elections made it very clear that Americans are looking for a new direction,” she said in an interview with the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics. “They want a government that works and that is focused on economic growth and job creation. I believe that the path to growing the GOP is to have a positive message with new types of candidates.”
She continued: “As a Party, we also must be willing to reach out, talk and listen to regions of the country that previous Republican candidates have failed to focus on. The good news is that we have a historic number of Republican governors who are excelling at bringing new ideas to the table and reaching out and speaking to new groups.”
In the wake of what occurred at the congressional hearing and its aftermath, Stefanik has gotten pushback from Tedra Cobb, a Democrat who is challenging Stefanik for her congressional seat. On Twitter, Cobb said that she has raised over $400,000 on Saturday for her campaign.
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