Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) on Tuesday complained about her removal from an advisory committee to Harvard University’s Institute of Politics over her peddling of unfounded claims of voter fraud. That exact Trump-fueled election delegitimization crusade ultimately incited the deadly insurrection of the Capitol last week.
Following the Capitol riots, hundreds of Harvard students, faculty and alumni petitioned the school’s Institute of Politics to cut ties with the lawmaker who graduated from Harvard in 2006.
In a statement sent to the Senior Advisory Committee of the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, Dean Doug Elmendorf cited Stefanik’s public remarks on bogus voter fraud claims — and her support for Trump’s efforts to delegitimize President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory — in his decision to remove Stefanik from the committee.
“My request was not about political parties, political ideology, or her choice of candidate for president. Rather, in my assessment, Elise has made public assertions about voter fraud in November’s presidential election that have no basis in evidence, and she has made public statements about court actions related to the election that are incorrect,” Elmendorf said. “Moreover, these assertions and statements do not reflect policy disagreements but bear on the foundations of the electoral process through which this country’s leaders are chosen.”
Elmendorf said he asked Stefanik to step aside from the advisory committee, but she refused to do so. Elmendorf told Stefanik that as a result, he took it upon himself to remove the New York Republican from the committee.
Stefanik hit back after her removal from the committee, issuing a tone deaf statement where she tried to paint herself as a victim of Harvard’s “cower and cave to the woke Left” and conveniently failed to acknowledge her role in egging on the beliefs of the pro-Trump mob that breached the Capitol.
??My statement on @Harvard @harvardiop @Kennedy_School bowing to the woke Far-Left ?? pic.twitter.com/DjvgdqAI1O
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) January 12, 2021
As Trump’s vocal foot soldier, Stefanik has repeatedly sowed doubt over the election process by pushing baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
Along with more than 100 House members, Stefanik signed onto the GOP effort to object to the certification of Biden’s electoral college victory prior to the joint session of Congress that met to ratify the President-elect’s victory last week.
Even after the mob of angry Trump supporters breached the Capitol building on the day of the certification of Biden’s electoral college victory, Stefanik still backed the GOP’s effort to challenge the election results.
“Tens of millions of Americans are concerned that the 2020 election featured unconstitutional overreach by unelected state officials and judges ignoring state election laws,” Stefanik said, after the riot. “We can and we should peacefully discuss these concerns.”
