Elise Stefanik fails screen test to be Trump "cult diva" president of vice - VP

New York #21 Representative Elise Stefanik is a lot of things, but this week, she made a good case that she’s not a historian.

Echo opinion published in The New Republic by Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling:

Rep. Elise Stefanik is a Trump cult diva

During a (botched !) speech on Super Tuesday, Stefanik tried to insert a callback to a famous campaign line by Ronald Reagan, in which he coyly questioned the progress made during President Jimmy Carter’s term. But the House Republican Conference chair had none of the charm—or apparently any memory—of what happened during the previous administration.

“Are you better off today than you were four years ago? The answer for hard-working Americans around the country is a resounding no,” Stefanik said.

This time four years ago, the nation was being ravaged in a dystopian way by the Covid-19 pandemic, with former President Donald Trump ordering sick passengers to stay quarantined on the Grand Princess cruise ship to keep case numbers inside the country low.

Droves of viewers with working memories were quick to glom onto the scripted error, including several of Stefanik’s Democratic colleagues.

One user on X (formerly Twitter) pointed out that “4 years ago this month Covid exploded out as Trump endlessly lied about the seriousness of it and there were so many dead bodies from it that cities had to rent trailers to stuff full of corpses.”

“Four years ago, people were rationing toilet paper and dying in hospital hallways,” posted Virginia Representative Gerry Connolly.

“The gentlelady from NY seems to have forgotten about body bags in Central Park, a collapsing economy, loss of faith in US democracy around the world and a tax-dodging, COVID-denying rapist President who was preparing his final act of sedition,” said Illinois Representative Sean Casten.

Rep. Don Beyer (on X- formerly Twitter) "Do these people have amnesia? Four years ago we were in a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, people couldn't safely leave their homes, the economy was taking the biggest hit since the Great Depression, and Trump was lying to the country about all of it.

Other wanna-be contenders to be Trump’s Number Two include one-time Democratic presidential primary candidate Tulsi Gabbard, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, Florida Representative Byron Donalds, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the last of whom has already outright rejected the offer (“I am not doing that.”) 

And the list continues to grow. Just last week, Trump added Texas Governor Greg Abbott to his dumpster fire pick list.