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.