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In October 2021, New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik stepped onstage at an occasion in Washington, D.C. – a celebration of human rights activists from Central America.
“I’m honored to current you with the 2021 Democracy Award,” Stefanik stated, because the room applauded a bunch known as Nicaragua Nunca Más.
The occasion was organized by the Nationwide Endowment for Democracy, a congressionally funded pro-democracy group the place Stefanik serves on the board of administrators.
In her speech, Stefanik talked about Nicaragua’s “consolidation into dictatorship” and the significance of “selling and strengthening democracy world wide.”
However in terms of home politics, the No. 3 Home Republican strikes a special tone.
She voted to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election. Within the weeks earlier than the Endowment’s award ceremony, her marketing campaign printed a controversial Fb advert making an unfounded accusation: that “Radical Democrats” are colluding with immigrants to stage “a PERMANENT ELECTION INSURRECTION.”
This month, she’s been one in all Donald Trump’s most vocal defenders – and one of many Home Jan. 6 committee’s greatest critics. “We wish to guarantee that each American is aware of that this isn’t a critical investigation. This can be a partisan political witch hunt,” Stefanik said in an interview with the conservative outlet Newsmax.
In her protection of Trump, Stefanik frequently spreads election conspiracy theories – a few of the similar concepts that motivated a violent mob to storm the U.S. Capitol. Her statements and actions have prompted a few of the Endowment’s workers to demand her elimination from her management function. However when her place on the board expired in 2022, she was renewed for an additional time period.
Years of pro-democracy work preceded a dramatic political pivot
When she received her first time period, at age 30, Stefanik was the youngest girl ever elected to Congress. She was referred to as a principled onerous employee – and anyone who labored with Democrats on every kind of points. By one index, she was ranked the thirteenth most bipartisan member of Congress.
Stefanik additionally spent a lot of her profession working with organizations that defend democratic and civic establishments, together with the International Coverage Initiative and Harvard’s Institute of Politics.
The Nationwide Endowment for Democracy embodies all of the values the US historically stands for. Congress appropriates the cash, and the Endowment writes grants to assist activists and civil society teams in nations with autocratic leaders.
However after Stefanik was chosen for the board in early 2019, her politics modified. Now, some individuals who work on the Endowment say that she is undermining their mission and harming their work from the within.
Stefanik has by no means stated explicitly that the election was stolen or rigged – her rhetoric is extra polished than Trump’s – however she amplifies a lot of the identical mis- and disinformation as the previous president.
“Tens of thousands and thousands of People are rightly involved that the 2020 election featured unprecedented voting irregularities, unconstitutional overreach by unelected state officers and judges ignoring state election legal guidelines, and a elementary lack of poll integrity and poll safety,” Stefanik said on Jan. 4, 2021.
Election specialists say 2020 was probably the most rigorously watched election in American historical past. Each Republican and Democratic officers throughout the nation oversaw it and by no means discovered any proof of widespread fraud or irregularities.
Stefanik condemned the violence on Jan. 6. However after police had cleared the rioters from the Capitol grounds, she voted towards certifying President Biden’s win in Pennsylvania.
Workers have been offended about Stefanik’s actions round Jan. 6
On the Nationwide Endowment for Democracy, lots of people on workers have been furious about Stefanik’s Jan. 6 vote. One former staffer advised NPR that the Endowment’s values have been “completely undermined and mocked” by its personal board member.
Greater than 60 folks signed an inner letter describing Stefanik’s actions as “upsetting within the excessive.”
“Nothing might be extra incompatible with the democratic values that are enshrined within the Endowment and its sacred mission,” the letter learn. “It’s our need to know the way it might be doable that Consultant Stefanik will stay a part of the NED board of administrators following her abuse of workplace in ways in which contradict NED’s core values within the starkest phrases, and what steps will likely be taken to resolve this contradiction.”
The management has stored Stefanik on their board
The letter was the main focus of some heated workers conferences.
The group put out an announcement about Jan. 6, saying that the Endowment is “appalled by the violent and seditious assault” on the Capitol. However they determined to not take away Stefanik.
The Endowment declined to do an interview for this story. However NPR spoke with individuals who have been a part of the workers discussions on the Endowment after Jan. 6. They did not wish to give their names as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk to the media and feared they might lose their jobs or face profession backlash for doing so.
The workers was advised that the Endowment is bipartisan and that it can not get dragged into home politics, the sources stated. The group’s funding has come beneath menace up to now – most not too long ago throughout the Trump administration – but it surely’s had constant backing from each Republicans and Democrats in Congress, and the management needs to maintain it that approach.
The management additionally argued that Stefanik is supportive of the Endowment’s work overseas and is a essential ally in Congress, staffers stated.
Then conversations about Stefanik died down. Her function on the board of administrators didn’t change.
Some staffers advised NPR they hoped the Endowment would quietly let Stefanik go, or put a ways between the group and the congresswoman. As an alternative, Stefanik spoke on the 2021 award ceremony. And when her place on the board expired in January of this 12 months, she was renewed for an additional time period.
In the meantime, Harvard’s Institute of Politics did take away Stefanik from an advisory function after Jan. 6. Stefanik accused the college of “bowing to the woke, far-left mob.”
NPR reached out to Stefanik for this story, however her workplace didn’t reply to our request.
Nevertheless, a spokesperson did touch upon a associated story in Politico, which first reported on the inner turmoil on the Endowment over Stefanik’s function final 12 months.
The spokesperson advised Politico that Stefanik was “proud to have one of many strongest data within the Home supporting and main bipartisan efforts to fund the Nationwide Endowment of Democracy and the mission of supporting and strengthening democratic establishments world wide.”
The present and former staffers interviewed for this story argued that the Endowment’s choice to not take away Stefanik was hypocritical. “She participated in an try to overturn an election. It is onerous to consider something extra elementary to the problems we care about,” one particular person stated.
One other supply stated it is “embarrassing” that Stefanik is on the board as a result of the Endowment “is meant to be a pacesetter on this combat for democracy.”
“This was one thing that transcended partisanship,” a 3rd particular person stated.
A whole lot of the staffers have been sympathetic to the management’s level that the Endowment’s funding has been in danger up to now and will simply be jeopardized once more if the group is perceived as selecting sides in political battles.
“We’ve got seen a vindictiveness in some quarters of the Republican Social gathering aimed toward efforts to carry them accountable for what one may name counter-democratic actions,” the third supply stated. “It is not one thing to be dismissed out of hand.”
However they needed extra transparency on the choice to embrace Stefanik, they stated, and needed to understand how the Endowment would react to assaults on American democracy sooner or later.
What finest serves democracy?
For years, Larry Diamond was co-editor of the Endowment’s Journal of Democracy. In a farewell piece earlier this 12 months, Diamond wrote concerning the “deterioration of democratic norms and establishments in the US” and world wide. “That is the darkest second for freedom in half a century,” he wrote.
Nonetheless, he recommended that firing Stefanik would have been a careless transfer for the group. “How does that serve democracy or the nice work we’re doing world wide to assist democrats in determined want, who want funding for his or her civil society organizations, funding for unbiased media, funding and coaching to withstand authoritarian rule?” Diamond advised NPR.
He added that on this second of intense polarization, it is essential to have “protected areas the place partisan politics just isn’t going to intrude. And I feel it is essential that the Nationwide Endowment for Democracy be a type of establishments.”
However as Republican Social gathering leaders embrace more and more excessive views – just like the false notion that the 2020 election was stolen – it might turn into harder for historically bipartisan teams to remain out of the fray.
“These are robust points and I feel we’re all making an attempt to determine, is bipartisanship doable today?” stated Charles Stewart III, a professor of political science at MIT.
“We might be eager for the day when the largest fear we’d have was with a Stefanik on the Nationwide Endowment of Democracy board,” Stewart stated.
Stefanik is one in all 30 board members, and it seems the Endowment believes bipartisanship remains to be doable. They’ve indicated that they wish to embody politicians of all stripes as they make choices and write grants – even somebody who votes to overturn an election.
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