BLUE MOON: Stefanik bats Kristen Welker aside!

TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2024

Blue elites vanquished again: What she did on December 5 produced a general uproar.

We refer to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who a colleague described as "an odious demagogue" in the wake of her performance. 

In the course of that performance, Stefanik had savaged a trio of presidents from there elite American universities. Two of those presidents—those from Harvard and Penn—have been forced to leave their posts in the wake of the performance.

Many members of both major tribes remarked on the startling lack of skill put on display that day by the college presidents. At this site, it seemed to us that the presidents' performance was stunningly bad, but that Stefanik's performance was even worse.

At any rate, so it had gone in the wake of the slaughter. And as Stefanik's national profile rose, she swore there was much more to come. 

On Sunday, Stefanik appeared as the featured guest on Meet the Press. She was introduced by NBC's Kristen Welker in the manner shown:

WELKER (1/7/24): Joining me now is a key Trump ally, Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York, who chairs the House Republican Conference, making her the highest-ranking woman in congressional GOP leadership. 

She is also the youngest woman ever to serve in elected congressional leadership. Congresswoman Stefanik, welcome to Meet the Press.

STEFANIK: Great to be with you, Kristen.

WELKER: Thank you so much for being here. 

So it went as a major blue tribe journalist squared off with a major red tribe political star. For the record, each participant was a Harvard graduate—Welker in the class of 1998, Stefanik in 2006.

Within the political realm, a great deal turned on the events of December 5. By way of contrast, Stefanik's appearance on Meet the Press has created little notice.

Stefanik's appearance has been little note and won't be long remembered. That said, it seemed to us that this appearance was, in principle, highly instructive. From the perspective of our own blue tribe, the question would go like this:

Why is it so easy for "odious demagogues" to conquer our own tribe's brightest and best?

In theory, those three college presidents were numbered among the blue tribe's brightest and best. As host of Meet the Press, Welker now serves in one of the most honored posts in all of mainstream blue tribe journalism.

That said, Stefanik was able to bat these adversaries aside with the greatest of ease! If we within our flailing blue tribe are able to learn from this latest event, our lesson would start with the way Stefanik batted aside Welker's opening question.

That first question went like this:

WELKER (continuing directly): I want to start by talking about 2024—some of what we've heard over the past 48 hours. Obviously, President Biden officially kicking off his campaign against former President Trump, who's the strong front-runner [sic]. 

You are one of Trump's strongest supporters. In his speech, President Biden cast the former president as a threat to democracy. This was an argument that was effective in 2020. It was a winning argument for Democrats in 2022. How do you answer that charge?

Strange! After a clumsy reference to Donald J. Trump as "the strong front-runner," Welker produced a reference to 2022 which comes to us, live and direct, from a thoroughly standard, if embellished, Joe Scarborough daily script.

A softball floated over the plate. Stefanik batted it out of the park, then was off to the races.

She began with the easiest rebuttal on earth. With Welker forced to sit and stare, she then launched a filibuster:

STEFANIK (continuing directly): Well, first, Kristen, I wouldn't say it's a winning argument. In fact, in 2022, Democrats lost the House, and House Republicans ran on the issues that matter to the American people. 

We ran on securing the border. We ran on addressing the historic inflation, which the American people know is a result of Joe Biden's failed policies and the trillions of dollars of reckless spending. And what Joe Biden didn't mention in his speech were any of the policies that have created a crisis across America. 

So, zero mention of the border, which is wide open and a top issue even in my home state, in New York. You have Democratic mayors who are speaking out about Joe Biden's border crisis. No mention of inflation, which continues to be a concern for voters across my district. 

And when it comes to threats to democracy, Joe Biden and Democrats are a threat to democracy. We see them attempting to remove President Trump from the ballot. We saw this in Colorado and Maine. That is the suppression of the American people and the American people's ability to cast their ballots this November. So it's Democrats that are a threat to democracy.

By the time Stefanik was through, the gorilla dust was general over the Meet the Press set. That said, let's start with Stefanik's rebuttal of the odd thing Welker had said.

For ourselves, we're inclined to agree with the claim that Donald J. Trump represents "a threat to democracy." That said, was some such charge "a winning argument for Democrats in 2022?"

In his endless rants, Scarborough repeats that pleasing claim on an almost daily basis. We're always struck by the embellishment built into that claim, given an elementary fact:

Republicans won control of the House in 2022, taking control back from the Democrats!

It's odd to claim that you won an election which you actually lost. That said, given the current state of cable news—given its near-total "segregation by viewpoint"—Scarborough makes this claim on a daily basis with none of his acolytes piping up to challenge what he has said.

It's accurate to say that Republicans did less well in that year's House elections that had been widely predicted. But have you really advanced "a winning argument" if, in the course of advancing that argument, you lose control of the House?

It was odd to see Welker advance that claim—unless you're a red tribe partisan. (Presumably, very few such people still watch Meet the Press.) 

To such a viewer, her statement would have been the latest example of the famous old "liberal bias." Stefanik batted the claim aside, then launched a filibuster. 

Gorilla dust was everywhere by the time Stefanik's filibuster was through:

Inflation, a wide-open southern border, trillion of dollars in reckless spending? The threat to democracy which has been posed as "Joe Biden and Democrats" attempt to remove Donald J. Trump from November's ballot?

All these points were thrown in the mix as Stefanik accepted the invitation to respond to Welker's original question. Confronted by this tsunami of debatable claims, Welker offered one weak point of demurral, then moved to her second question. 

In our view, it was in her response to that second question that Stefanik left Welker for dead.

Stating the obvious, Kristen Welker is a good, decent person. Like the college presidents who journeyed to D.C. on that cold December day, she now sits at the very top of a traditional blue tribe elite.

The college presidents sat at the top of the blue academic establishment. Welker sits at the top of our tribe's journalistic elite.

Despite their status, the college presidents were wholly unable to deal with Stefanik's onslaught. And so it would be as Stefanik responded to Welker's second question.

We'll document that mayhem tomorrow. For today, please remember the basic question we're asking you to consider:

How is it possible that our highest-ranking blue elites can be do easily left for dead by an "odious demagogue" of the opposing tribe? 

How could that have happened on December 5? Did it happen again this past Sunday?

Beyond that, riddle us this:

Can we learn something from these events about the way our blue tribe functions? Two of the college presidents are gone by now, and Stefanik batted Welker aside as if she wasn't there.

Tomorrow: Welker plays tape of what Stefanik said on January 6

For the record: Republicans won 50.6% of the nationwide congressional vote in 2022. In the course of advancing their winning argument, Democrats won 47.8%.