The “principled” GOP Congressman, who once presented himself as a reasonable voice in his party, has completed his transformation to Trump Republican with the nomination of Elise Stefanik for House GOP Leadership
He voted for impeachment. He spoke out against the insurrection. He defended Liz Cheney in February. He warned his party that engaging in lies about the election only stoked more violence, more division, and ultimately led to the insurrection at the US Capitol.
But now he’s a changed man.
John Katko finds himself at a crossroads in the Republican Party — a party in which those who are honest are pushed out, canceled, and silenced, and those who want to succeed must learn to “carry out the message.”
Well, Katko has learned to carry out the message. So far this week he’s demonstrated it twice, refusing to say whether he voted to remove his colleague Liz Cheney for telling the truth, and again by nominating Elise Stefanik to that very same post.
The same Elise Stefanik who supported efforts to overturn the 2020 election, peddled conspiracy theories about fake votes, and amplified a slew of election-related lies and misinformation. Really.
The same Elise Stefanik who was endorsed and congratulated by Donald Trump for taking on this role because the ex-president and the House GOP know she’s all-in on the Trump agenda.
Meanwhile, John Katko, shaken by the fact that he’s been dropped by every single Conservative Party committee in his district, has worn so many faces in the last couple of months trying to fit in as the Republican Party becomes more and more extreme that he is unrecognizable.
DCCC Spokesperson Abel Iraola:
“John Katko has become another tool of Trump’s Republican Party. His transformation from principled defender of democracy and advocate for honesty in the GOP to taking a lead role in installing a Trump loyalist and election conspiracy peddler in House Republican leadership goes to show the pressure Republicans are under to give in to Trump and let him lead the way to another term as the minority party in Congress. And John Katko is happy to help.”
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