January 17th, 2024
By Arjun Singh
Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York will attempt to censure Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the chair of the House Republican Conference, over comments regarding the events of January 6, 2021.
Stefanik is alleged by Goldman to have made false statements about the 2020 presidential election in former President Donald Trump’s favor, as well as favorable comments about persons who entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to disrupt the certification of electoral votes. Goldman indicated Wednesday that he would file a resolution to censure Stefanik for her comments, according to a press release.
“January 6th was the gravest attack on American democracy since the Civil War and Congresswoman Stefanik’s persistent and continued support for the perpetrators of an insurrection is contemptuous,” Goldman said in the press release. “In putting her personal ambitions over her integrity, Congresswoman Stefanik has been Donald Trump’s biggest congressional cheerleader, even though our mutual home state of New York overwhelmingly opposes him.”
The resolution cites statements Stefanik made on Jan. 7 that individuals who have been charged with crimes related to their alleged entry into the Capitol building, and are in custody awaiting trial, are “hostages.” It also cites statements she has made claiming that the prosecutions of defendants in Jan. 6 cases are the victims of the “weaponization of the Federal Government … against conservatives.”
“By echoing Trump’s reference to the criminally convicted January 6 insurrectionists as ‘hostages,’ Congresswoman Stefanik both demeans the actual hostages currently held in captivity in Gaza,” Goldman wrote.
Goldman’s resolution also refers to Stefanik filing a complaint of judicial misconduct against Judge Beryl Howel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in December as a basis for censure. Stefanik, who filed the complaint on Dec. 15, justified her decision by claiming that Howell “gave a highly inappropriate speech in which she insinuated the election of President Trump will lead to fascism in America.”
The list of statements by Stefanik that Goldman cites goes back to December 1, 2020, when she allegedly spoke about the accuracy of voting machines supplied to states by Dominion Voting Systems, a group that obtained a $787 million settlement with Fox News for its coverage of the machines.
“Her rhetoric betrays her oath of office and the House of Representatives and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” Goldman claimed.
To date, the House of Representatives in the 118th Congress has censured three of its members — Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff of California, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Jamaal Bowman of New York. Schiff was censured over conduct during the FBI’s Operation Crossfire Hurricane, Tlaib was censured regarding her comments on Israel and Bowman was censured for pulling a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building, for which he pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge.
“Desperate corrupt Far Left House Democrats are attempting to force a vote to censure me for my unwavering support for the Constitution, the rule of law, and election integrity,” Stefanik wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I will ALWAYS stand up for #NY21 & the American people, the Constitution, and President Trump.”
