Stefanik hypocrisy is stunning
Warren County advised to put masks back on as Covid climbs
By Ken Tingley
Schenectady Gazette columnist Andrew Waite found a human side of Rep. Elise Stefanik last week during a meeting with the newspaper’s editorial board.
Stefanik faced tough questions about why she objected to the election results in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot and continued to foster false statements regarding the election results even now, but she dug in.
Waite wondered why she couldn’t be the principled person to de-escalate the rhetoric and dial down the divisive talk. He wondered why she couldn’t take the high road.
Instead, Stefanik bristled at that suggestion and doubled down and called the Democratic Party “radical,” then said it was really social media that was the problem for our nation’s polarization.
That’s when Waite saw the glimmer of hope in Elise Stefanik.
“You told us you’re often scared for your staffers, some of whom are in their early 20s, and face constant threats of violence,” Waite wrote. He said it seemed “heartfelt.”
“It’s absolutely abhorrent, and there’s no place for it,” Stefanik said of the threats. “And anyone in my operation knows that it is unacceptable to make any type of violent threats of violence.”
“You were animated and earnest in that moment, and I saw the person who cares about others,” Waite wrote. “I saw the mother in you. I saw the friend who still checks for life updates with that former staffer I know…”
It was a new low for Stefanik and a miscalculation by Waite.
It was an act.
Or a memory failure of catastrophic proportions.
Three years ago during ugly protests outside Stefanik’s office in downtown Glens Falls, a man named Mike Kibling pointed a toy gun at a Post-Star reporter and screamed repeatedly through a bullhorn, “We’ve got one coming for you, Post-Star.” The female reporter was in her 60s.
Coming in the wake of the Capital Gazette murders in Maryland, it was chilling for us at the newspaper.
To give you some context of this man, he had previously wrote this about the immigration issue on Facebook:
“I’m so sick of motherfucking Mexicans crossing the border that I want to set up a 50 cal and just start wasting them. There is only one alternative. Start wasting them like dogs in the street, men, women and children alike. It’s a necessary evil. They will get the the message very quickly…”
I apologize for the profanity, but the angry context is necessary to convey the danger we felt from this man’s words.
I worried about the 50 men and women who worked at the newspaper and had families. Many had nothing to do with writing or editing the news and yet they had been threatened too - “We’ve got one coming for you, Post-Star.”
Two days later, Kibling, the guy who wrote about wasting Mexicans with a 50-caliber machine gun and who pointed a toy gun at one of my reporters while screaming through a bullhorn that The Post-Star was next, heard from Stefanik’s campaign manager Alex deGrasse.
He thanked him.
Kibling said that Stefanik had sent her appreciation to him and his group and deGrasse was asking them to show up at Stefanik’s town hall meeting in Kingsbury for a show of support, and I suspect, intimidation.
Rep. Stefanik showed none of her contempt for violence that Andrew Waite saw last week.
When I heard about the invitation to Kibling three years ago, I sent her communications director the following email asking her to denounce Mike Kibling and explain to our employees why she was putting them in danger.
Here is what I wrote:
I am shocked that Rep. Stefanik would join forces and give legitimacy to Mike Kibling after his widely reported threats against The Post-Star and one of our female reporters this past weekend.
“Those threats have made many of the men and women who work at our newspaper - from receptionist to obit clerks to those in our advertising department - nervous about their safety. Considering the times we live in and the Capital Gazette shooting from a year ago, we are appalled that the congresswoman has given this bully credibility and support.
I hope she will denounced the actions of her campaign manager and renounce any affiliation with this man.
I would also urge her to make a visit to our newspaper to explain to the regular workers with family why she has put them in danger.
She may not agree with the criticisms we have made about their stands on the issues but this has put people at our newspaper in danger and is not right.
Diane Kennedy, president of the New York News Publishers Association, immediately released this statement:
“Rep. Stefanik should cut ties with the political activist who threatened a Post-Star reporter and the newspaper’s staff and publicly condemn threats against journalists.”
Rep. Stefanik did neither.
Rep. Stefanik never responded to my email, and when the town hall meeting took place, Kibling was in the front of the room with others from his group basking in the limelight.
I can relate to Stefanik’s concern for the safety of her staff. But I don’t believe it is genuine.
Stefanik’s contention to the Gazette editorial board that she abhors violence against her staff belies the reality that she had no concern for my staff three years ago.
She did nothing.
She welcomed Kibling him to her town hall meeting and smiled for the cameras.
The hypocrisy of Elise Stefanik is stunning.
Lyme Disease book
Author Meghan O’Rourke will be discussing her book on chronic Lyme Disease, “The Invisible Kingdom,” via Zoom at SUNY Adirondack on Monday, November 7 at 12:30 p.m. at the Visual Arts Gallery on campus.
The book was a National Book Award finalist and a New York Times bestseller.
Awards return
The Journalism Association of New York held its first awards banquet ever last week. But it felt like old times to me.
For years, The Associated Press Association was one of the backbones of journalism in the state of New York. It provided support to run an annual journalism contest and seminars for professional development. When I was president of the organization, the broadcasting and print wings of the organization merged.
But The Associated Press withdrew its support for state organization all around the country in recent years, leaving the newspapers adrift until this year when former board members were able to put together a new group of journalists and renamed it JANY.
The awards banquet was held in Saratoga Springs - as usual - and attendance was a little lighter than normal, but it was a rebirth and great to see great newspaper and broadcasting work being honored once again. All are communities benefit from that.
Covid spiking upstate
Warren County has seen its covid infection rate spike in recent weeks and on Wednesday it was one of 10 counties in upstate New York where the CDC is now recommending masks be worn.
The infection rate has been climbing and the newspaper has reported several deaths in recent weeks. Time to dig out your masks again as flu season approaches.
I remember the degrading profanity-laden screaming through bullhorns within inches of the faces of my fellow protesters by Kibling and others, not named in your article, during rallies objecting to legislation Stefanik supported, namely voting to strike down The Affordable Care Act, the policy of putting immigrant children in cages among dozens of other extreme right-wing policies of the Trump Administration. We endured, most of us elderly women, young mothers who brought their children for a lesson in civil protest, the bullying, verbal abuse and physical threats of big angry men wielding giant Trump flags, claiming to "defend the congresswoman's office." As organizer of many of these peaceful marches, I took our voices to City Park, where we were further hounded by the Trump-Stefanik supporters. During one Women's Rally supporting Planned Parenthood, where speakers addressed the public, the speakers were shouted down with disgusting slurs, led by Kipling. I have since learned that many of our events were countered by a coordinated plan to bus-in Trump supporters from outside our region, as far as Buffalo. I'm not surprised. I know the reporter you mentioned well, and because she dared to approach the Trump supporters to get their comments at one particular gun rally, she, too, was abused and encircled by angry men and women, and police had to help remove her to safety. Now, Stefanik's comment that she fears for her staff are ludicrous. When a staffer cannot answer a question on the phone about Stefanik's position on any given piece of legislation, it is very frustrating, but I know there have not been any threats to the welfare of her staff. Many of us have stopped calling her office. We don't need another generic response letter saying, "I am proud to serve you." Stefanik only serves herself--and her master Trump.
Thank.
There is no statement/comment by stefanik we should accept, unless:
• she is on a polygraph
• and she has documented sources to prove it
Even then it is doubtful
I remember her interview where she said she didn't know who preston scagnelli was. She said that and when confront again with 'he states he is an intern' she insisted she didn't know him... .that if anything it was the nrcc that paid him
Then pictures appeared of them arm and arm, of them marching in a parade.. then it came out she had actual paid him...
Now let's just forget all those lies for a moment --- and there is an endless string of lies we have to forget.
I condemn anyone who makes a threat against her staff.. (by the way after she lied about preston scagnelli, she hired maddie andersen, who worked for the nrcc and likely set up the recording of #ny21 teens)
That said
preston scagnelli spied on minors, who could not vote. He lied to the teens at a meeting with Tedra Cobb, he lied to Tedra...
And when reporters called prestons house.. his parents lied for him and told them never to call them again (it is nice they protected their corrupt son, but we know where he got his lying from -- stefanik just refined it)
alex deGRASSe lied, andersen lied, stefanik's entire staff lied about that.. They were caught --- red-handed --- and they lied, and lied -- it was like they were russian dolls -- 100 of them each nestled with another lie.
stefanik exploited teens in #ny21! If you are a parent, teacher, or friend of teens, you know they are vulnerable... and in this story, you know they were vulnerable to what they are --- as people, but also as what they are as children... they trusted another minor (preston) who lied to them. But also the authority figure -- lying stefanik.
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Now has eLIEs staff been attacked...? we can't say yes, we don't have the polygraph. Was stiffy criticized for hiring only white interns and staffers who are politically connected and likely associated with donations to stiffy. I get that is probably true.. and it is a valid criticism --- but it isn’t an attack on her staff.. No it is just another lie from her.
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She published a note on her social media. The note said: “Rot in Hell fascist pig” Was there a note.. sure. Was it an attack on stiffy? Probably not, probably a lie.. it is what she does.
She supports the police, but did she take that note o the police and have the handwriting analyzed --- did mattmanda give a handwriting sample... did preston scagnelli give a handwriting sample
No to all of them.
Why... why didn’t she have that checked..
The go to answer has to be stefanik is a liar.
and she is heartless
https://www.newsweek.com/new-york-elise-stefanik-far-left-1491117