In 2018, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan sat next to his friend and ally Rep. Elise Stefanik and predicted a bright future for the New York Republican. "This is the future of the Republican Party, the future of our country — people like Elise," Ryan told CBS.
Stefanik, for example, worked in the Bush-Cheney administration and has been an acolyte of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. When the Harvard-educated, upstate New Yorker was elected in 2014, she became the youngest woman (at that time) elected to the House. She promised to work across the aisle and modernize the Republican Party. In 2016, she was a supporter of John Kasich.
What happened? Apparently the age-old siren song of power and money over ethics.
When Trump was impeached the first time, Stefanik saw an opportunity to play partisan pit bull -- and she was rewarded with $13 million in donations for her reelection campaign. Sucking up to Trump paid -- and she won praise from the President and Fox News.
So when it came time to vote to overturn the election -- after the January 6 attack on the Capitol -- Stefanik was an easy recruit for the sedition caucus. [emphasis added throughout]So, yes, Ryan was right. This is the future of the GOP.
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