While questioning Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) made difficult-to-believe claims about her constituents’ interests in the former vice president’s son and his role in a Ukrainian gas company.
After asking Vindman about corruption in Ukraine, Stefanik asked Vindman to confirm aspects of his previous testimony about the business operations of Burisma.
“You also testified that regarding Burisma, money laundering, tax evasion, comports with your understanding of how business is done in Ukraine; is that correct?” she asked.
“I’m not aware of specific incidents, but my understanding is that it would not be out of the realm of the possible for Burisma,” he said.
“I know that my constituents in New York-21 have many concerns about the fact that Hunter Biden, the son of the vice president, sat on the board of a corrupt company like Burisma,” she said. “The Obama administration’s State Department was also concerned. And yet Adam Schiff refuses to allow this committee to call Hunter Biden despite our requests. Every witness who has testified and has been asked this has answered yes. Do you agree that Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma has the potential for the appearance of a conflict of interest?
“Certainly the potential, yes,” Vindman responded.
Stefanik claims her upstate New York constituents are very concerned about Hunter Biden pic.twitter.com/BhGxRWYi7F
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) November 19, 2019
Stefanik has positioned herself as an aggressive member of the minority throughout the course of the public impeachment hearings in recent days, including attempting to pull one particular stunt. As TPM noted last week, during the testimony of former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-CA) attempted to break bipartisan agreed-upon rules in order to allow Stefanik to take up the remainder of his and the attorney’s 45 min for questioning. Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) put a stop to the stunt, insisting the either Nunes or the attorney wrap up the questioning.
Not long after Schiff halted the proceedings, conservative media outlets, predictably, wrote up the incident, painting it as a sexist attack by Schiff.
