Roughly 24 hours ago at this time, there was anticipation surrounding E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit against Donald Trump. Not only have the proceedings advanced in notable ways, but there was a very real possibility that the former president would take the witness stand.
That didn’t happen. As NBC News reported, a juror felt ill, and Alina Habba, the defendant’s attorney, had a Covid exposure, as did her co-counsel. With these details in mind, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan granted Team Trump’s request for a postponement.
It was against this backdrop that House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik apparently thought it’d be a good idea to offer some commentary about the morning’s anodyne developments. In a social media message, the New York Republican wrote, in reference to the trial delay:
“This is blatant election interference! Joe Biden and his Democrat cronies are the true threats to democracy! TRUMP 2024!”
By any fair measure, the congresswoman’s complaint was ridiculous. Trump’s own lawyer asked for a delay, and the judge agreed. The trial could’ve proceeded without the ill juror, but the Republican’s defense team preferred a postponement.
Literally nothing about this resembles “election interference” in any way. The member of the House Republican leadership accused a federal judge of serious misconduct for no reason whatsoever.
It was an unfortunate low point for Stefanik, but it was also part of a larger pattern.
Two weeks ago, for example, the GOP leader appeared on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” where she not only raised the prospect of rejecting the results of the 2024 presidential election, she also echoed Trump’s rhetoric about Jan. 6 rioters being “hostages” — a claim that even some in her party were not comfortable with.
It came on the heels of Stefanik responding to Trump’s classified documents scandal by criticizing the National Archives, helping launch an effort to “expunge“ Trump’s impeachments, and joining a partisan crusade against federal law enforcement.
In the fall, she also filed an ethics complaint against the judge overseeing Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York and pressed the Justice Department to prosecute Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer who has since become a fierce critic of the former president.
Over the weekend, after Trump confused Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi — the former president twice said the former ambassador to the U.N. was responsible for congressional security on Jan. 6 — Stefanik managed to say with a straight face, “That isn’t a mix-up.”
Or put another way, Stefanik is going to outlandish lengths to make one thing perfectly clear to Team Trump: She will say anything, without regard for accuracy, propriety, shame, or self-respect.
I continue to believe that no one should want to be vice president this badly.
This post revises our related earlier coverage.
