Elise Stefanik Blows a Fuse After Being Reminded of Sudden Trump Pivot

Elise Stefanik doesn’t want anyone to remember her time criticizing Donald Trump back. In fact, she’ll lose her mind if you try to bring it up.

The Republican representative lashed out at Fox News’s Shannon Bream on Sunday, when the TV host brought up a New York Times article from 2022 noting that the Republican representative once called Trump “a whack job.” The article also noted that Stefanik told a New York radio station in 2015 that Trump was “insulting to women” and that his presidential candidacy would hurt the GOP’s efforts to attract female voters.

“Well Shannon, it’s a disgrace that you would quote The New York Times with nameless, faceless—” Stefanik fired back, before Bream interjected.

“But they’re quoting your friends, so I’m giving you a chance to respond to that,” Bream said.

“No, Shannon, they’re not quoting my friends. Those names are not included because they are false smears,” said Stefanik.

“Just to be fair, there are a number of names of people who are quoted in the article,” Bream replied, as Stefanik tried to speak over her. “People can read for themselves.”

Stefanik ignored Bream’s reminders about her early stance on Trump and tried to reframe the interview into how much she supports Trump, claiming that she was the only Republican from the Northeast who voted for Trump in 2016. But, as Bream noted, the article is online for everyone to see, and it clearly shows a Republican who transformed herself from a moderate into one of Trump’s most fervent defenders.

Stefanik has called the January 6 rioters “hostages,” alluded to saying she would enact a coup for Trump, defended Trump’s sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll, and even claimed that Americans were better off in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic than they are now. More recently, she’s filed an ethics complaint against special counsel Jack Smith for “illegal election interference” despite the fact Smith is investigating Trump for interference in the 2020 election.

Like many Republicans, Stefanik went from trying to distance herself from Trump in 2015 to fervently defending him after he won the 2016 election. Just like those other Republicans, she refuses to acknowledge that sudden pivot. The question is whether that loyalty to Trump will pay off for her in her political career, as she’s on a short list to be his vice presidential running mate.

Newly published financial disclosure reports revealed that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito dumped stock in Anheuser-Busch last summer during the height of a manufactured anti-trans hate campaign targeting the brewer.

The disclosure reports, as first reported by Chris Geidner at Law Dork, reveal Samuel Alito sold between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of stock in Anheuser-Busch in mid-August 2023. Per Geidner, this stock dump in the midst of the right-wing boycott against Bud Light suggests Alito may have sold his stock as a form of participation in the boycott. This reveal comes on the heels of reporting by The New York Times that Alito flew an inverted flag associated with anti-government extremism outside his home in January 2021, an exposé that Alito poorly handled by blaming his wife.

In April 2023, anti-trans and far-right influencers targeted Bud Light for its use of influencer Dylan Mulvaney for a sponsored Instagram post. Mulvaney is a trans woman who gained prominence documenting her transition journey in bubbly, joyful fashion. Bud Light has long partnered with influencers, including comedians Seth Rogan and Amy Schumer and musician Post Malone. The brand has historically crafted ads specifically geared toward the LGBTQ+ community. The hate campaign called for people to boycott Bud Light, resulting in the brewer’s stock plummeting.

At the same time Alito sold stock in Anheuser-Busch, he purchased stock in Coors, a rival brewer led by an ultraconservative family known to shower money on conservative politicians. It was recently revealed that the charity for the Coors brewing family reportedly donated $15,000 to Accuracy in Media, a right-wing group best known for sending doxxing trucks to harass students at college campuses across the country.

David DePape, who broke into Representative Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and attacked her husband, Paul, with a hammer in 2022, was sentenced to 30 years in prison Friday. And the far right thinks it’s a travesty.

Several far-right influencers seem to think that the arrest is a conspiracy, much like they thought about the initial attack.

Chaya Raichik, who runs the anti-LGBTQ account Libs of TikTok, took a break from banning books and instigating threats against teachers and children’s hospitals to post about how many more dangerous people than DePape won’t see a jail cell.

Likewise, pundit and radio host Charlie Kirk thought that San Francisco cared more about the Pelosi case than other violent crimes in the city.

Conservative influencer Johnny Maga also echoed the “violent crimes in San Francisco” trope, wondering why criminals can roam the streets in San Francisco, “left unprosecuted.”

Conservatives largely laughed or promoted conspiracy theories when news of the attack on Paul Pelosi broke nearly two years ago. Even today, they either dismiss or even justify such political violence, either explicitly or through implication. Meanwhile, Paul Pelosi says he’s still suffering dizziness, headaches, balance problems, nerve pain, and walking challenges as a result of the attack.

After a New York Times story revealed an inverted flag was flown outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in January 2021—for which Alito blamed his wife, Martha-Ann—a Fox News host stepped up to help the Alitos further embarrass themselves.

“I spoke directly with Justice Alito about the flag story in the New York Times,” Shannon Bream posted on X (formerly Twitter) Friday morning. “He told me a neighbor on their street had a ‘F— Trump’ sign that was within 50 feet of where children await the school bus in January 21.”

Twitter user Aaron Fritschner—deploying basic fact-checking that would make a Fox News host’s head spin—looked into the claim and found it doubtful. Multiple news articles from 2021 show schools in Alexandria, Virginia, where the Alitos reside, were operating remotely from winter 2020 well into February 2021—a month after the Alito’s inverted flag was first documented. As the Alitos may recall, the Covid-19 pandemic shut down school bus operations.

Bream ran even more cover for the Alitos, claiming they told her a neighbor put up a sign “personally addressing Mrs. Alito and blaming her for the January 6th attacks,” a questionable claim that smacks more of a hilariously passive-aggressive troll than a serious accusation. Bream also claimed the Alitos told her of an incident where the conservative couple were walking through the neighborhood when Martha-Ann Alito engaged in a dispute with “a male at the home with the sign” who “engaged in vulgar language, ‘including the c-word.’” In response to that dispute, Bream says, Martha-Ann opted to raise a symbol popular with anti-government extremists, a reaction that makes little to no sense.

According to Bream, the Alitos claim the inverted flag was only up “for a short time.” According to messages sent from a neighbor at the time reviewed by The New York Times, the flag was up for “several days.”

The inverted American flag is a symbol popular with far-right and anti-government protests, and it was raised at the Alito household at some point between the January 6 Capitol riot and Biden’s 2021 inauguration. Regardless of why, its presence outside the home of a Supreme Court justice raises concerns of bias with judicial experts.

In May 2022, this reporter covered a pro-abortion demonstration outside the Alitos’ Alexandria home. At the time, their flagpole bore a correctly oriented American flag, and no neighbors reported any flag or sign-related conflicts. In lieu of any volatile outbursts or expletive-laden signs, their neighbors set up a charming fire pit and offered this reporter wine, cheese, and key lime pie.

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott is well on his way to winning Donald Trump’s veepstakes, but the power behind that drive has come from an unexpected ally: Kellyanne Conway.

Scott has reportedly been tending to a budding friendship between himself and the former top Trump White House aide, several sources connected to Conway told The Daily Beast. The pair have been seen grabbing dinner together around Washington, D.C., and Conway is also scheduled to speak at a fundraiser in June led by the Southern lawmaker. Getting closer to Conway has also meant getting closer to Trump, who reportedly still values the former counselor’s opinion very highly.

“Tim and Kellyanne have gotten close because, as she puts it, she is de facto head of Trump world—like Trump’s security blanket,” a source close to Scott told the Beast. “People underestimate how much the president relies on her counsel and they doubt her influence at their own peril.”

Trump, meanwhile, made a mysterious allusion to his V.P. choice on Friday, posting that the first presidential debate of the election season would take place at an HBCU “on behalf of the future Vice President of the United States.” (In reality, the Commission on Presidential Debates had picked that location in November, despite Trump’s attempts to take credit for it.)

But although he’s one of the top contenders, Scott isn’t the only candidate Conway is considering for Trump’s number two spot. Also at the top of the list is Florida Senator Marco Rubio, according to sources that spoke with the Beast. The political consultant is even weighing other options on a separate level of viability. Those candidates include North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty.

While Conway’s lobbying for Scott is seen as authentic, and her influence with the presumptive GOP presidential nominee very legitimate, sources close to her told the Beast that she’s not impervious to making a bad bet.

“Here’s the thing about Kellyanne: People dismiss her for a variety of reasons—she’s not particularly smart and doesn’t really come up with a lot of good ideas; she’s always chasing money, and that’s what guides her decision-making,” one source said. “But she does have Trump figured out like no one else. If anyone can convince him to make a mistake—and later assign blame to someone else—it’s Kellyanne.”

Still, Conway’s team says the buck stops with Trump.

“President Trump seeks the counsel of many men and women on the V.P. pick, but he and he alone will decide,” Conway said in a statement.

Donald Trump has no shortage of Republican allies willing to help him get around the gag order in his hush-money trial. On Friday, Representative Bob Good, who traveled to New York to attend the trial, spilled the beans.

“That’s why we went up there, so that we could say the things that this corrupt judge is not allowing him to say,” Good said on Fox Business Friday morning. “This is a judge who seems to get all the high profile conservative trials up there, and his own daughter is raising tens of millions of dollars for the Democrat party off this very trial.”

Good’s comments, if he was told specifically by Trump to make them, would violate his gag order, which prohibits the former president from attacking Judge Juan Merchan, court staff, the prosecution, jurors, witnesses, or their families, as well as directing surrogates to do so on his behalf.

In the past week, Good and several other Republicans, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, have traveled to Manhattan to support the former president. While there, they took turns attacking Merchan and bullying his daughter. Good’s comments even echoed those of his colleague in Congress, Representative Matt Gaetz, outside of court on Thursday in New York.

“We are here of our own violation because there are things we can say that President Trump is unjustly not allowed to say,” Gaetz said, flanked by other Republican congresspeople. His words would be overshadowed by mockery from local New Yorkers.

Trump has claimed that the order prevents him from defending himself against damaging testimony from the case’s star witnesses, including adult film actress Stormy Daniels and his former fixer and attorney, Michael Cohen. He’s even tried to get the order tossed out, only to be rebuffed by a New York appeals court. Despite this, Trump still attacked the lead prosecutor of the case, Matthew Colangelo, outside of court on Thursday, opening himself up to possible jail time.

Trump is accused of paying off Daniels in order to keep their affair under wraps before the 2016 presidential election with the help of Cohen, and faces 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed Friday that the GOP-led House Oversight Committee abdicated normal procedures after the panel devolved into mudslinging, sparked by a characteristically bizarre outburst by Marjorie Taylor Greene. In fact, AOC explained, the chaotic House hearing was part of a “structured GOP outcome.”

The committee was holding a markup meeting regarding Republican efforts to advance contempt proceedings against Attorney General Merrick Garland for refusing to produce confidential recordings between President Biden and special counsel Robert Hur.

During the Thursday night meeting, MTG spontaneously launched into a bizarre line of questioning at her Democratic colleagues, asking if any of them employ the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan, a favored attack from Trump that landed him a gag order that conservative politicians have been intentionally circumventing during his hush-money trial.

Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett asked Greene, whose comments had derailed the hearing, “Do you know what we’re here for?” In response, Greene insulted Crockett’s appearance, saying “I don’t think you know what you’re here for. I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”

Greene’s attack prompted a response from Ocasio-Cortez, who admonished the far-right loudmouth and unsuccessfully moved to have Greene’s comments struck, calling Greene’s rhetoric “absolutely unacceptable.”

The following day, Ocasio-Cortez took to X (formerly Twitter) to break down how Greene’s outburst overshadowed—and aided—what Ocasio-Cortez describes as a “microcosm of what authoritarians do on a larger scale.”

“AFTER the Republican Chair and GOP members broke official House protocol to allow MTG’s horrific opening silo of rhetoric, they THEN made another change to dispense with the legislative process,” Ocasio-Cortez said on X (formerly Twitter). “THAT part is not getting enough attention.”

In a move Ocasio-Cortez described as “highly unusual and still unclear to me how legitimate it was,” the GOP-led committee vacated both the typical amendment process and legislative debate that follows, moving directly to vote on their own text without allowing for amendments or objections to be heard.

“That’s why this stuff isn’t just all-sides chaos, or mere distraction, or a pox on everyone’s house,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “They WANT you to think this was some random devolution of conduct instead of a structured GOP outcome. We must understand who and what actions created the situation. It matters.”

Thanks to MTG’s meltdown, the vote to initiate contempt proceedings against Garland was successful.

The Republican show of force at Donald Trump’s hush-money trial over the week has culminated in a formal effort to get the U.S. legislature to intervene in the process of the judiciary system.

Representative Andy Ogles introduced legislation Thursday to undermine the partial gag order imposed on the GOP presidential nominee. Trump is prohibited from publicly disparaging court staff, prosecutors, jurors, witnesses, or their family members during the course of the trial.

Ogles’s bill, called the “Let Trump Speak Act,” would severely restrict the limitations a gag order can place on a defendant, effectively undoing Trump’s order and preventing judges in future criminal or civil proceedings from reining him in with a gag. The act would also allow Trump to sue judges who gag him, Ogles claimed on Real America’s Voice.

“We have watched for years as a politically weaponized Department of Justice and Democrat activist judges have gone after President Donald J. Trump,” the Tennessee Republican told Fox News Digital. “There is no right more sacred to Americans than the right to speak freely, as guaranteed in the First Amendment.”

Trump has claimed the restriction is tantamount to “election interference,” effectively claiming that being unable to openly attack participants in the trial is illegal as it has hampered his reelection campaign.

A slew of Trump’s allies showed up to his hush-money trial this week in a collective show of support behind the criminally charged former president. Some of the politicos who trekked up to New York include House Speaker Mike Johnson, Representatives Matt Gaetz and Eli Crane, and Senators Tim Scott, J.D. Vance, and Tommy Tuberville. Members of the House Oversight Committee, including Representatives Andy Biggs, Lauren Boebert, and Anna Paulina Luna, also made the journey Thursday, going so far as to reschedule a contempt markup for Attorney General Merrick Garland so that they could be in the background of Trump’s trial.

On Tuesday, biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy, RNC co-chair Lara Trump, Eric Trump, and two Republican representatives showed up at the New York courthouse in matching suits and ties for a low-budget fundraising ad that attempted to portray Trump as a candidate unjustly locked in the courthouse.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is calling for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

Durbin’s call comes after reports that an upside-down U.S. flag flew outside of Alito’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, as rioters stormed the Capitol in effort to overturn the 2020 election. 

“Flying an upside-down American flag—a symbol of the so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ movement—clearly creates the appearance of bias,” Durbin said to The Hill. “Justice Alito should recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection, including the question of the former President’s immunity in U.S. v. Donald Trump, which the Supreme Court is currently considering.”

The U.S. flag is usually flown upside down in times of distress, like in the case of an SOS. In recent years, it has been adopted by the far right, as well as Trump supporters, to say “Stop the Steal” regarding the 2020 election. While Alito blamed his wife for putting up the flag, such an act in January 2021 would still appear to violate the Supreme Court’s new judicial code of ethics, adopted last November, which recommends avoiding political statements and avoiding the appearance of bias. Durbin mentioned the code in his statement.

“The Court is in an ethical crisis of its own making, and Justice Alito and the rest of the Court should be doing everything in their power to regain public trust,” Durbin said. “Supreme Court justices should be held to the highest ethical standards, not the lowest.”

The senator from Illinois was slow to respond to recent ethics scandals on the Supreme Court, despite having subpoena power. In November, Durbin backed off  a vote to subpoena Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo, two major conservative donors connected to Justices Alito and Clarence Thomas. This time, will Durbin’s call be backed up with action?

Project 2025 associates shared new details Friday about their plans for an expansive immigration crackdown—including mass deportations—under Trump. The group’s focus on immigration seeks to have executive orders and policy memos ready for use on day one of a second Trump presidency, undoing portions of Biden’s immigration policies and setting the stage to realize Trump’s desire to mass-deport up to 20 million people

According to details shared to The Wall Street Journal, Trump allies have found one of their main sources of inspiration for the giant deportation campaign: the U.K. Rwanda plan. The group is working to identify countries that would accept people deported from the United States, much like a similar effort between the U.K. and Rwanda, which is currently mired in legal entanglements.

Trump allies are also working out ways to make asylum hearings move faster to speed up deportation eligibility and remove deportation protections created by Biden that would impact hundreds of thousands of people.

These new details of Project 2025’s agenda were revealed by The Wall Street Journal simultaneously with similar revelations shared with Reuters about Project 2025’s aspirations to neutralize the Department of Justice’s independent investigative authority and convert it into a conservative attack dog. Combining its efforts to alter the Department of Justice with legally murky mass-deportation initiatives could present an authoritarian dynamic that removes legal impediments to actualize its deportation goals.

Project 2025 is a coalition effort of conservative groups that seek to dismantle long-standing frameworks of democracy to turn the U.S. into an ultranationalist, hyperconservative, authoritarian society. While its objective prioritizes a Trump presidency, the coalition operates independently from the Trump campaign. Leading Project 2025 is the Heritage Foundation, a heavy hitter in conservative policymaking, and the America First Policy Initiative, a newer group that has been described as “just a grift.”

Trump’s campaign has denied associations with efforts being crafted on behalf of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, with Trump senior advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita telling both Reuters and The Wall Street Journal: “Unless a message is coming directly from President Trump or an authorized member of his campaign team, no aspect of future presidential staffing or policy announcements should be deemed official.”

LaCivita and Wiles claim details made public of Project 2025’s efforts to streamline Trump’s conservative agenda ahead of the election are “an effort to prevent a second Trump administration.” Neither adviser rebuffed the aspirations behind Project 2025, which are being crafted in line with Trump’s public statements regarding mass deportations and the Department of Justice.