Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) stopped short of certifying the 2024 election results on Sunday, stating she will “see” if this year’s election is “legal and valid.”
When asked on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” if she would vote to certify the 2024 election results regardless of the outcome, Stefanik stated, “We will see if this is a legal and valid election.”
The issue was prompted by Stefanik’s earlier comments in the interview, in which she explained why she objected to certifying Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results on January 6, 2021.
“I stood up for election integrity, and I challenged and objected to the certification of the state of Pennsylvania because of the unconstitutional overreach,” Stefanik said in a statement. “I firmly believe in my floor speech. “I am honored to be a supporter of President Trump.”
Stefanik claimed on the House floor on January 6 that Pennsylvania’s State Supreme Court and secretary of state “unilaterally and unconstitutionally rewrote election law” by removing signature-matching standards.
“Well, I voted not to certify the state of Pennsylvania because, as we saw in Pennsylvania and other states across the country, there was unconstitutional acts circumventing the state Legislature and unilaterally changing election law,” she said to NBC News moderator Kristen Welker on Sunday.
Stefanik was one of 147 Republicans in Congress who voted to maintain their objections to either the Pennsylvania or Arizona election results.
Welker stated that she did not hear Stefanik’s promise to certify the election results and questioned, “Will you commit to certifying the results only if former President Trump wins?” Does this suggest that if former President Trump is elected?”
“No, it means whether they’re constitutional,” Stefanik clarified. “What we saw in 2020 was unconstitutional circumventing of the Constitution, not going through state legislators when it comes to changing election law.”
“We’re seeing Democrats try to steal the election by illegally gerrymandering congressional districts that we won fairly and that have fair lines.” So I see this at a very local level, in addition to the unconstitutional overreach we saw at the national level in 2020,” she continued.
Stefanik, a Trump supporter, also mentioned the two Colorado and Maine judgments that seek to remove the former president from each state’s primary ballot.
“From what we’ve seen so far, Democrats are desperate enough to try to remove President Trump from the ballot.” That is a form of oppression against the American people. The Supreme Court will hear the matter in February. “That should be a 9-0 vote to allow President Trump to appear on the ballot because that is a decision that the American people must make this November,” Stefanik said.
Decisions in Colorado and Maine would bar Trump from running for president in 2024, declaring that he is ineligible under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause. Trump has filed an appeal with the United States Supreme Court, which will consider his case next month.
Maine’s judgment, made by state Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D), was appealed in state court, but the case might also go to the United States Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority.
Several conservative politicians have claimed that the ballot decisions are a ploy by Democrats to keep Trump from retaking the presidency in 2024.