President Donald Trump on Sunday praised Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), calling her a “new Republican Star” after the New York Congresswoman attempted to break House Rules and for her questioning of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch during Friday’s public impeachment inquiry hearing.
“A new Republican Star is born. Great going @EliseStefanik!” he tweeted, while sharing a post from One America News Network host Liz Wheeler with a clip of the confrontation.
Stefanik during last week’s hearings emerged as a key defender of Trump on the Intelligence Committee.
Intelligence Committee ranking member (R-Calif.) Devin Nunes at one point tried to turn the microphone over to her rather than GOP counsel, as mandated in a House-written rule, causing Schiff to gavel her down.
Stefanik and Schiff at the first public hearing on Wednesday also got into a heated exchange over the identity of the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the impeachment inquiry into Trump.
“Will you be prohibiting witnesses from members’ questions as you have during the closed-door depositions?” she asked.
Schiff responded that the only time he did so is “when it was apparent that members were seeking to out the whistleblower.”
“I’m disturbed to hear members of the committee who have in the past voiced strong support for whistleblower protections seek to undermine those protections by outing the whistleblower,” he added.
Trump on Sunday morning also retweeted posts from Republicans on the House Oversight Committee and Stefanik herself.
He also slammed former George W. Bush campaign aide Matthew Dowd for criticizing Stefanik in a tweet that read, “Elise Stefanik is a perfect example of why just electing someone because they are a woman or a millennial doesn’t necessarily get you the leaders we need.”
“Dowd never understood the pulse of the Republican Party, present or past. He’s just a 3rd rate hit job for Fake News @ABC!” Trump wrote.
Read Trump’s tweets below:
A new Republican Star is born. Great going @EliseStefanik! https://t.co/9QH4oUa2eg
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2019
Dowd never understood the pulse of the Republican Party, present or past. He’s just a 3rd rate hit job for Fake News @ABC! https://t.co/RMIWNmBqOb
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2019
