Rep. Elise Stefanik on Sunday morning accused the Biden administration of having "equivocated" on its support of Israel, commenting in an interview after her address to Israel's Knesset that she wanted the nation's government to know that the American people stand strong with Israel as do House Republicans.
"We passed this week on the House floor a condemnation of Joe Biden's withholding precision-guided munitions that the House overwhelmingly passed and supported in the Israel aid package," the New York Republican said on "Fox News Sunday."
Biden, she added, signed a bill into law that Congress passed overwhelmingly but "he's not abiding by it."
"This is about Joe Biden's beleaguered and failing polls in states like Michigan," she said. "Shame on Joe Biden. It's a betrayal of the importance of the U.S.-Israel alliance that's the most precious in the region.
"It's about congressional intent and the law he signed as the commander in chief and now he's withholding those munitions."
Meanwhile, she defended her speech to the Knesset in the face of U.S. standards of leaving partisan politics and criticisms of a sitting president out of international talks.
"I was invited to talk about my work when it comes to combating antisemitism and my strong record when it comes to U.S.-Israel support," Stefanik said. "The world needs to know and Israel needs to know that the House Republican majority stands strongly with Israel … this weak failed leadership we are seeing from Joe Biden, that's not where the American people and the U.S. Congress are."
Stefanik also pushed back Sunday after show host Shannon Bream asked her about a New York Times article from 2022 that questioned her strong support of former President Donald Trump, considering her name is one of those under consideration as a potential running mate for him.
In the article, several sources, including former friends of Stefanik's, are quoted saying that she had expressed disdain for Trump in the past.
"This is a false smear," she said, insisting that the article relied on unnamed sources, which Bream denied.
"In 2016 I was attacked as the only electorate Republican from the northeast who voted for Donald Trump. Democrats spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking me for that fact," the congresswoman said.
Stefanik added that she is "proud" to be one of Trump's strongest allies in Congress and that she has always put her district first.
"This is an opportunity for us to stop the failures of Joe Biden and elect a president who led to a strong booming economy," said Stefanik. "It's a disgrace that you would take a New York Times article and just read negative notes when I was the only Republican elected woman from the northeast who voted for him in 2016 and who was strongly supporting him. I'm proud to be one of his strongest allies today."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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