FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 23rd, 2024
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Republican House Conference Chair Elise Stefanik spoke at CPAC, the largest and most influential gathering of conservatives in the world. You can watch her full speech linked here.
Read Chairwoman Elise Stefanik’s full remarks as prepared below:
“Hello CPAC!!
I have two important questions for you: Are we ready to fire Joe Biden this November? Are we ready to elect President Trump to save America?
Yes, we are. It’s time to make history.
We always say that every election is the most important election in our lifetime. But this election truly is. Because in just three short years, Joe Biden and the Far Left Democrats have laid waste to our great nation.
For the first time ever, the majority of Americans believe the next generation will be worse off than their parents. This is fundamentally not who we are. The American Dream is being destroyed by the radical Left and we are a country in crisis.
From Joe Biden’s catastrophic border crisis, to Bidenflation crushing hardworking families, to evil terrorists attacking our most precious ally Israel, to the shredding of our Constitution, and to the unprecedented, illegal, and corrupt weaponization of the federal government.
We The People must vote to save our hallowed Republic.
***
The mainstream media – the loyal stenographers of the Left – they fundamentally underestimate We The People. They underestimate President Donald J. Trump every single day. And I’m proud to say they have underestimated me at every turn.
But I will never underestimate the power of You.
Because I know – like President Donald J. Trump knows – that we work for YOU – Not the arrogant editorial boards, not the cocktail party chattering class, not the entitled SWAMP. YOU – the people.
Ten years ago, I was proud to make history as the youngest woman ever elected to the United States Congress.
And it is my highest professional honor to represent New York’s 21st Congressional District – the cradle of the American Revolution.
I started my campaign at 28 years old, no one thought I could win a primary, let alone a general election and flip a district from Democrat to Republican. They said she “can’t win.” Sound familiar?
You see, I don’t come from a political family. I was raised in a hardworking small business family who loves our country. I saw the extraordinary work ethic that my parents put into building their small business and providing a better opportunity for their children than they had themselves.
I was the first member of my immediate family to have the opportunity to graduate from college. I graduated from Harvard – but that’s not the achievement, the achievement is graduating from Harvard and staying a conservative. Don’t worry – I’ll get back to Harvard in a minute.
But in my first underdog campaign, we outhustled, outworked, and we flipped a district from Democrat to Republican. We were underestimated and we won by a historic margin thanks to WE THE PEOPLE. You see this was a district that Barack Obama won twice. Now it’s Trump and Elise Country.
But in 2016, Democrats came after me with millions of dollars in attack ads because I was the ONLY elected Republican woman in the Northeast who stood by President Trump. They spent every penny they could muster. But I doubled down, fought back, and proudly voted for President Donald J. Trump. And we all know how this ends – Trump defied the odds, made history, and Made America Great Again.
But the vicious Left is relentless and I was underestimated yet again when during the first sham impeachment in 2019, infamous Russia Hoaxer Adam Schiff was so bothered by my crystal clear defense of the Constitution, the rule of law, and President Trump that he broke congressional rules to try and shut me down. And he failed.
And like all of you here today – On January 6th, I stood up for the Constitution and election integrity, and went on to defeat and replace Pelosi puppet Liz Cheney in top leadership as House Republican Conference Chair.
And I’m proud to be the first Member of Congress to endorse President Trump for re-election. I have stood in the breach for President Trump, for the Constitution, and most importantly for YOU -THE PEOPLE – in some of the toughest fights of our Republic.
***
The American people know that I will always have a backbone of steel.
Just ask the Presidents of Harvard and Penn. Sorry, FORMER presidents. Did you all see that Congressional hearing on antisemitism?
I’ve been in a lot of high profile hearings over the years but this was the most morally bankrupt testimony that I have ever witnessed.
I asked each of the university presidents a simple question. And it was not a political question, it was a moral one. Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your university’s code of conduct on bullying or harassment?
And shockingly, one, after another, after another shocked the world and answered. “It depends on the context.”
And the world heard.
It does not depend on the context. You ask three hardworking constituents from my district – a farmer, a manufacturer, and a suburban mom. And they know how to answer that question.
It is now the most viewed testimony in the history of the United States Congress with billions of views. And let me say it again for all to hear – TWO DOWN. SO MANY TO GO.
It showed the world what we already know: that there is a radical Leftist rot in our higher education system that is destroying the minds of our next generation.
These are the same so-called “elite” schools that rank last when it comes to defending freedom of speech. They gleefully cancel conservatives simply for being pro-life or standing up for election integrity, and yet they fail to condemn the genocide of Jews.
We must stop the flow of taxpayer dollars to these dens of antisemitism. We must account for every dollar of foreign funding flowing into these schools and we will end the tax breaks that have incentivized this moral rot on campus.
We all know it’s not just these three schools. It’s sadly schools across the country. That’s why subpoenas are already out the door, it’s why we launched an investigation, and we will not rest until we hold them accountable.
***
That historic hearing showed that one voice supported by the American people can set off an earthquake and a reckoning and help save our country.
We cannot give up, the life of our nation is at stake and as we all know: The closer President Trump gets to victory, the dirtier the Democrats, their stenographers in the media, and the corrupt prosecutors will get.
They will stop at nothing, and I mean nothing in their attempt to steal this next election.
Democrats baselessly impeached President Trump twice.They indicted him four times for noncrimes and are trying to bankrupt him and destroy his successful business.
Far Left Democrat New York Attorney General Tish James – who campaigned on going after President Trump – teamed up with an unethical Democrat Manhattan Judge to unconstitutionally impose a nearly half-billion dollar penalty on Trump for the victimless non-crime of paying back banks, in full, on time, as agreed, with interest.
The Left has gone so far as to desperately try to remove President Trump from the ballot. Why?
Because Joe Biden’s approval is in free fall and they want to take away the vote from YOU.
Meanwhile, you have the corrupt Joe Biden Crime Family lining their pockets from illegal influence-peddling schemes. Yet Democrats and the media like to pretend they are saving democracy, but it’s the radical Far Left that’s destroying democracy.
And we can’t let them.
***
Ladies and gentlemen: As we enter this election season, we cannot lose sight of what’s at stake.
America itself is on the line.
We had the most secure border in our nation’s history when President Trump left office. Joe Biden took executive actions leading to the most wide open border in our nation’s history with over eight million illegals invading our country – an amount greater than the population of 36 states.
Biden halted border wall construction, ended Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy, and implemented catch and release.
In Joe Biden’s America, every district is a border district. Every state is a border state. The Southern border is being invaded.
And even on the northern border, like the area in my district, illegal crossings are up over fourteen hundred percent, including individuals on the terrorist watchlist.
Crime is spreading from cities to small towns. Cartels cross the southern border with zero consequences.
Illegal immigrants come to our cities, assault our brave law enforcement officers, rob our neighbors, and if they are in New York City, Democrats give them a taxpayer-funded debit card.
Fentanyl is pouring into every crevice of the country and poisoning a generation of Americans. This is Joe Biden’s Border Crisis. The media won’t hold him accountable. The Left won’t hold him accountable.
So you and I must. And we will – at the ballot box.
***
The border crisis is not the only Biden crisis. We are in an economic crisis for hardworking Americans.
President Trump left Joe Biden the strongest economy in my lifetime – millions of new jobs, historic wage growth for blue-collar workers, the lowest unemployment in fifty years, booming U.S. manufacturing, and 15 million Americans lifted out of poverty.
Yet Joe Biden and the Democrats quickly destroyed our economy by passing trillions of dollars of reckless spending leading to painful Bidenflation – the worst inflation in my lifetime.
Now, hardworking young families can’t afford homes. Middle class workers can’t afford groceries. The cost for nearly everything has skyrocketed – from car insurance to family pizza night.
And President Biden has the audacity to point to Wall Street and claim that the economy is booming and Bidenomics is working?
It’s offensive to the American people
***
There’s one more Biden crisis that I want to point out—and it’s the most insidious of them all.
It’s one I witness every single day when I defend President Trump from the Deep State.
And that is the way Democrats attack our democracy.
We saw it with the Russia collusion hoax. Obama spied and then lied. We saw it with how they unconstitutionally rigged the 2020 election. We saw it when the Deep State colluded with Big Tech and used taxpayer dollars to censor the ACCURATE Hunter Biden laptop story. We see it today as unelected liberals try to remove Trump from the ballot.
And let’s remember – Democrats objected to every Republican President in the 21st century.
This is the same justice system that shrugs off the worst corruption we’ve ever seen in the White House from the Biden Crime Family.
Here’s a rule of thumb: What the Democrats accuse us of, they are guilty of ten times over.
And here’s why this really matters:
If they weaponize the government against President Trump, they can weaponize it against you. And they have. Joe Biden’s weaponized DOJ has targeted Catholics, gun owners, conservatives, and even parents at school board meetings.
***
It’s up to you my fellow American patriots to save our Republic. President Trump has the most powerful force behind him. YOU. We the People.
Ladies and gentlemen here’s what I want you to know. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, whatever your age. If ever there was a time for patriots to step up and fight, this is it.
It will not be easy.
When the media and the elites attack us for supporting President Trump, it’s because they’re scared. They’re scared of what he will accomplish when he drains the swamp. And they’re scared of what you will accomplish.
So remember what President Trump taught us: When they attack you, we double down and fight back.
We are counting on the PEOPLE to save America. And save America, we will.
As we embark on the difficult path ahead, I again turn to Galatians 6:9:
‘And let us not grow weary of doing good,
for in due season,
we will reap if we do not give up.’
We the people will never give up on America. Thank you!
God Bless You! God Bless President Trump! God Bless the United States of America!”
