Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson came out swiftly and strongly against a resolution to censure House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik for remarks she made about the hundreds of criminally-charged or criminally-convicted participants in the events surrounding Donald Trump’s January 6, 2021 insurrection.
U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) on Wednesday announced he will file a resolution to censure the New York Republican who has closely tied herself to the indicted ex-president. Stefanik recently called the more than 1265 people who have been charged for their alleged actions “hostages,” language also used by Donald Trump.
“I just heard about Goldman’s censure resolution against Elise Stefanik,” Speaker Johnson told reporters in what Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman described as “a rare hallway statement.” Stefanik nominated Johnson to become Speaker.
“I think it’s patently absurd. She’s one of the best leaders and best communicators in Congress. She is doing an exceptional job and the the idea that he would use censure to attack a political opponent is just ridiculous,” Johnson added, Sherman also reported. That language has also been used by Donald Trump to describe various efforts to hold him accountable.
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Speaker Johnson, who has been called a “key player” in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, did not address the substance of Goldman’s motion: Stefanik’s “hostage” remarks.
“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 and provides support for those who attacked the Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, caused the death of five law enforcement officers, injured more than 100 others, and threatened violence against members of Congress and their staffs,” Goldman said in a statement, as The Hill reported. “Her rhetoric betrays her oath of office and the House of Representatives and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.”
The four-page resolution alleges Stefanik “has supported the duly charged and convicted January 6 insurrectionists, who attacked the United States Capitol, threatened violence against Members of Congress, and attempted to stop the certification of the 2020 Presidential election.”
It also charges Stefanik “supported January 6 insurrectionists by refusing to commit to faithfully executing her constitutional duty to certify the 2024 election,” and that she “referred to the prosecution of January 6 insurrectionists as ‘the weaponization of the Federal Government … against conservatives.’”
Goldman charges that “instead of condemning the mass assault of over 140 police officers during the violent attack on the Capitol, Representative Stefanik posted on X that the same Federal judge’s critique of violent January 6 insurrectionists is “illegal.”
Goldman did not stop there.
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In addition to accusing her of promoting Donald Trump’s election fraud claims that led to the insurrection, Goldman alleges Stefanik “falsely referred to Special Counsel Smith’s indictment of former President Donald Trump, based on former President Trump’s alleged criminal conduct related to his efforts to unlawfully overturn an election, as efforts by President Biden to ‘suppress the will of the voters’ and ‘meddle with the election using the Department of Justice’.”
He alleges that Stefanik “improperly filed a bogus and vindictive ethics complaint against a Federal judge, who has overseen various criminal cases involving January 6 insurrectionists, alleging judicial misconduct based on accurate remarks that ‘big lies’ surrounding the 2020 election led to criminal conduct on January 6 and the convictions of hundreds of individuals.”
And, he alleges, Stefanik, “peddled a debunked voter fraud conspiracy, stating that ‘more than 140,000 votes came from underage, deceased, and otherwise unauthorized voters in Fulton County alone’.’”
In a New York Times interview Wednesday, Goldman said, “Our preference would be for Republicans to recognize that kind of rhetoric has to stop and find a spine and stand up to Donald Trump.”
The New York Democratic Congressman “said he did not plan to force quick action on the measure, as House rules allow any lawmaker to do.” Rep. Goldman also “said he would consider seeking to force a vote in the future, if G.O.P. leaders fail to take up the matter themselves, something that appears exceedingly unlikely.”