As House Republicans move toward ousting GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney for her refusal to lie about the 2020 election, Katko says he’ll support Stefanik
Republican Rep. John Katko, who voted to impeach Donald Trump after the insurrection on our nation’s capital, announced today that he would “absolutely support” Trump loyalist Elise Stefanik for the GOP Conference Chair post once House Republicans complete their removal of Liz Cheney next week.
This is a massive and shameless reversal for Katko, who previously stood by Cheney and based his impeachment vote on the fact that “the U.S. Capitol was attacked by a mob intent on disrupting a Joint Session of Congress and preventing certification of the Electoral College Results.”
In January, Katko was worried that allowing “the President of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy.” Now he’s supporting Stefanik, who has continued to provoke division and spread lies about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.
Katko’s vocal support for a Trump extremist like Elise Stefanik shows that no Republican is immune from the pressure to “carry out the message” for GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy.
“John Katko’s shift from worrying about the future of our democracy to supporting a Trump loyalist in the Conference Chair Coup shows that Republicans have totally lost control of their party to the insurrectionists and conspiracists,” said DCCC Spokesperson Abel Iraola. “John Katko should be ashamed to support a member who continues to peddle the exact same lies and misinformation he denounced less than four months ago.”
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