Elise Stefanik- The master of performative McCarthyism
Or, how to destroy a career by "emboldening the bad-faith exploitation of anti-Semitism by Right-wing actors who have no interest in the safety of Jews"
Often those that criticise others reveal what he himself lacks.
Shannon L. Alder
I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.
William F. Buckley Jr.
The Congressional hearing was never intended to elicit answers or solve problems. Hearings chaired by Republicans in this Congress never are. They’re almost uniformly performative gripefests in which various members of the Wingnut Grievance Bubble harangue witnesses while cameras are rolling. It makes for good television on Fox News Channel and back in their home districts, which is the true purpose of the exercise.
This hearing was no different. Presidents of three Ivy League universities- Penn, Harvard, and MIT- were called before Congress to answer questions about antisemitism on college campuses, except that the hearing wasn’t about that. It was about Republicans wanting to demagogue the issue and perform like trained bears before the cameras. So they set up a hearing explicitly designed to make the Presidents look bad…and then made them look like fools. Congress is a Republican minefield, after all; the Presidents may have suspected they were walking into a public ambush, but they couldn’t have imagined how ruthlessly they’d be hammered.
Several Republican lawmakers used the hearing to ask reasonable questions, only to jump on the Presidents once they began answering them. This was because the questions weren’t asked to elicit information. They were merely jumping off points for the considerable performative outrage the Congresscritters expressed so they’d look tough for the cameras.
It wasn’t a Congressional hearing; it was the worst, most offensive sort of Republican performance art.
Since Oct. 7, university presidents have sought to balance the free-speech rights of pro-Palestinian demonstrators with fears that some of their language is antisemitic. But Ms. Magill’s lawyerly approach to her own speech during her appearance before a House committee on Tuesday immediately left her vulnerable to attacks.
At the hearing, Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, said that students had chanted support for intifada, an Arabic word that means uprising and that many Jews hear as a call for violence against them.
And after five hours of testimony, when President Magill was tiring, Rep. Stefanik got the moment she’d been waiting for.
”Calling for the genocide of Jews,” Ms. Stefanik asked, “does that constitute bullying or harassment?”
Ms. Magill replied, “If it is directed and severe, pervasive, it is harassment.”
Ms. Stefanik responded, “So the answer is yes.”
Ms. Magill said, “It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman.”
Ms. Stefanik exclaimed: “That’s your testimony today? Calling for the genocide of Jews is depending upon the context?”
AHA!! Rep. Stefanik had her “GOTCHA!!” moment. There was blood in the water, and she immediately went for the kill.
Elise Stefanik is a ruthless, unsentimental politician who cares nothing for or about the person in front of her. She didn’t care about the pressure President Magill had been under for months, nor did she give a damn about Magill’s humanity. All Rep. Stefanik wanted was her pound of flesh and the opportunity to unload her precisely curated mockery and disdain. She got it when she caught Magill in a moment of weakness and fatigue.
It was performative outrage, staged for the cameras, and intended to make her look essential and on top of her game, which she did at President Magill’s expense. It was a pathetically shrewish performance by a Congresswoman who long ago lost touch with her humanity and any sense of right and wrong.
Despite Ms. Magill later putting out a video to clarify her remarks before Congress, the pressure she was under to resign became untenable. Rep. Stefanik had her first scalp and was exuberantly proud of her “accomplishment.”
Only a callous sociopath like Rep. Stefanik would see being a performative asshole as something to be proud of.
After Ms. Magill’s appearance, Mr. Bok [the Penn Board of Trustees Chairman] said in an email on Saturday, “it became clear that her position was no longer tenable, and she and I concurrently decided that it was time for her to exit.”
He also defended Ms. Magill.
“Worn down by months of relentless external attacks, she was not herself last Tuesday,” he wrote. “Over-prepared and over-lawyered given the hostile forum and high stakes, she provided a legalistic answer to a moral question, and that was wrong. It made for a dreadful 30-second sound bite in what was more than five hours of testimony.”
Bok was, of course, spot on. All Rep. Stefanik had wanted was her “GOTCHA!” moment, and once she had it, she was like a pitbull with lockjaw.
I’d say that Elise Stefanik should be ashamed of herself, but that presumes she can process shame. That would be providing her far too much credit. She’s a sociopath who’s let the power of her position go to her head, and she’s pretty comfortable destroying people if that’s what will yield her the most desirable result.
I suspect a reserved parking space (perhaps an entire car park) awaits Rep. Stefanik in Hell.
Ms. Magill’s critics, who broadly welcomed her resignation, gave her no respite. They also sought to use Ms. Magill’s resignation to pressure Harvard and M.I.T. to act after Dr. Gay and Dr. Kornbluth offered similar testimony.
“One down. Two to go,” Rep. Stefanik said in a statement on Saturday. “This is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions in America. This forced resignation of the President of Penn is the bare minimum of what is required.”
We could talk about the pervasive rot of partisanship and inhumanity that’s infected this Republican Congress, but why beat a dead horse? That’s been evident for some time now.
Rep. Stefanik, a Harvard alumnus who’s been roundly rejected by her alma mater, used the hearing to grind the ax she’s been carrying for some time now.
Could President Magill have been more forceful in her condemnation of calls for genocide against Jews? Of course, she could have, and she probably realizes that. But is that cause for her to resign? Elise Stefanik was looking for an easy target and found one in President Magill. It was a pathetic episode of performative outrage by a Republican Congresswoman who’s a mean-spirited harridan under the best of circumstances. She’s perfectly insufferable when she believes it will get her the result she’s after.
But destroying the life’s work of an academic who’s led a distinguished career and has faced some very challenging circumstances at Penn? That shows what a small and thoroughly awful person Rep. Stefanik is. She has no accomplishments to show for her time in Congress save for her one talent- being an asshole on command.
Although Penn’s board did not vote on Ms. Magill’s status during an emergency meeting on Thursday, the university stopped well short of offering her its full support.
Ms. Magill came to Penn as a respected legal scholar who had led Stanford Law School and served as the provost at the University of Virginia, where she had received her law degree and taught.
Some faculty members and students said Saturday that they believed Ms. Magill had little choice but to go, either because of her words or because the response to them would leave her ineffective.
Beni Ramm, a Jewish first-year student at Penn, said that Ms. Magill’s resignation was a personal matter but he hoped it would deter calls for violence against Jews.
“I wish the university had been more forceful in condemning calls for intifada, and I wish President Magill had been more forceful in Congress,” he said outside the Hillel house on the Penn campus in Philadelphia.
It’s difficult to imagine anyone wanting to step into the Presidency vacated by Magill. Given the tense atmosphere on campus, the donors throwing their weight around, and students feeling unsafe, anyone assuming the Presidency will be stepping into a distinctly untenable situation.
That said, while there should be protections for free speech, there should also be clear lines delineating speech that represents a threat to physical safety. Any form of speech that advocates violence against a specific group would undoubtedly seem to threaten student, faculty, and staff safety- like calling for genocide against Jews, for instance, should not be tolerated. Beyond that black-and-white line, however, lies a lot of grey territory, which, while I won’t presume to get into Ms. Magill’s head, may have been the point she was trying to make. After five hours of testimony in a hostile environment, it’s easy to understand how she might have erred in a moment of fatigue and weakness.
Rep. Stefanik can go to Hell for her inability and unwillingness to simply be a caring, compassionate human. She’s a useless excuse for humanity who’s contributed nothing to this Congress. Her ambition and lust for power have blinded her to simple things like the need for kindness and humanity; someday, karma will catch up with her and leave her a bitter, angry woman with few allies and even fewer friends.
And the schadenfreude over her public demise will flow like the waters tumbling over Niagara Falls.
Go to Hell, Rep. Stefanik. Go directly to Hell. Do not pass “GO.” Do not collect $200. Because once you’ve reached Hell, you’ll be precisely where you belong.
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I don't understand why those presidents went into that hearing so unprepared. It was OBVIOUSLY a fishing expedition for exactly that kind of "gotcha" moment. But they all strolled in their like oblivious naifs who'd only that morning rolled off the turnip truck, expecting to be dealing with honorable people who would treat them honorably.
They should have all, instantly countered by challenging the neo-fascists about why they said nothing about islamophobia (it is the Palestinians who are being murdered in this country. They should have countered with the over anti-semitism of these Rep's own base and party members. They should have challenged them to produce one call for racial extermination that had come from ANY campus, not just their own.
In a word, they should have all gone directly on the attack.
By the bye, I read now that Stefanik has filed a complaint against one of the lead judges in the J6 trials for having had the audacity to tell the truth in public.