Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the No. 3 House Republican, and other GOP lawmakers came under scrutiny Sunday for previously echoing the racist “great replacement” theory that apparently inspired an 18-year-old who allegedly killed 10 people while targeting Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo.
The baseless conspiracy theory claims that politicians are attempting to wipe out White Americans and their influence by replacing them with non-White immigrants. The theory was cited repeatedly by 18-year-old shooting suspect Payton Gendron in an online document that appeared to have outlined his intention to carry out his planned attack in Buffalo because of its significant population of Black people.
Eleven of the 13 people shot at a Tops Friendly Markets store on Saturday were Black, according to police.
Buffalo residents mourn those killed in mass shooting
Residents of Buffalo are still reeling after a gunman launched a racially motivated attack at a grocery store, killing 10 people. (Video: Zoeann Murphy/The Washington Post)
While Stefanik has not pushed the theory by name, she and other conservatives have echoed the tenets of the far-right ideology as part of anti-immigrant rhetoric that has fired up the Republican base ahead of the midterm elections.
It marks a rapid transformation for Stefanik, who has sought to firmly align herself with former president Donald Trump and his nativist “Make America Great Again” agenda over the last year after she replaced Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as GOP conference chair. Cheney was pushed out for criticizing Trump’s role in spreading falsehoods about his election loss and for stoking the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
In response to the shooting Saturday, Stefanik tweeted that the U.S. “is heartbroken about the tragic news of horrific loss of life in Buffalo. We are mourning for the entire community & loved ones,” she wrote before thanking law enforcement for facing “skyrocketing violent crimes.”
But Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who is no stranger of denouncing pro-Trump colleagues, asked his followers in a tweet whether they knew “@EliseStefanik pushes white replacement theory?”
“@GOPLeader should be asked about this,” he said, referencing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). His office did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.
Kinzinger was referring to a series of Facebook ads published in September 2021 by Stefanik’s campaign committee that charged that Democrats were allowing undocumented immigrants into the United States as a ploy to outnumber, and eventually silence, Republican voters.
“Radical Democrats are planning their most aggressive move yet: a PERMANENT ELECTION INSURRECTION,” reads one of the ads, which shows a reflection of migrants in sunglasses Biden is wearing. “Their plan to grant amnesty to 11 MILLION illegal immigrants will overthrow our current electorate and create a permanent liberal majority in Washington.”
Rep. Stefanik claims in ads that Democrats seek a ‘permanent election insurrection’ by providing pathways to citizenship
It’s a similar argument frequently espoused by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, leading the Anti-Defamation League to repeatedly call for his firing since April 2021 after he appeared to endorse the concept during one of his segments.
Tucker Carlson twists Biden’s 2015 comments to push conspiracy theory
On Sept. 22, Fox News host Tucker Carlson misrepresented past immigration remarks by President Biden to suggest the existence of the “great replacement theory.” (Video: Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)
A Stefanik spokesman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about her thinking, said the ads were pushed at the time when New York City was debating whether to allow roughly 1 million non-residents the chance to vote only in local elections. City council approved the measure in December, allowing those living in NYC for over 30 days with a work permit — not undocumented immigrants — to partake.
In a scathing editorial responding to the “despicable” ads, Stefanik’s hometown newspaper, the Times Union of Albany, wrote that the New York representative “isn’t so brazen as to use the slogans themselves; rather, she couches the hate in alarmist anti-immigrant rhetoric that’s become standard fare for the party of Donald Trump.”
In response, Stefanik said Republicans stand for “legal immigration while Democrats support amnesty for illegals.”
“To equate opposition to illegal immigration with Nazism and white supremacy is a desperate attempt to stoke outrage & avoid covering Joe Biden’s border crisis,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
The baseless conspiracy theory claims that politicians are attempting to wipe out White Americans and their influence by replacing them with non-White immigrants. The theory was cited repeatedly by 18-year-old shooting suspect Payton Gendron in an online document that appeared to have outlined his intention to carry out his planned attack in Buffalo because of its significant population of Black people.
Eleven of the 13 people shot at a Tops Friendly Markets store on Saturday were Black, according to police.
Buffalo residents mourn those killed in mass shooting
Residents of Buffalo are still reeling after a gunman launched a racially motivated attack at a grocery store, killing 10 people. (Video: Zoeann Murphy/The Washington Post)
While Stefanik has not pushed the theory by name, she and other conservatives have echoed the tenets of the far-right ideology as part of anti-immigrant rhetoric that has fired up the Republican base ahead of the midterm elections.
It marks a rapid transformation for Stefanik, who has sought to firmly align herself with former president Donald Trump and his nativist “Make America Great Again” agenda over the last year after she replaced Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as GOP conference chair. Cheney was pushed out for criticizing Trump’s role in spreading falsehoods about his election loss and for stoking the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
In response to the shooting Saturday, Stefanik tweeted that the U.S. “is heartbroken about the tragic news of horrific loss of life in Buffalo. We are mourning for the entire community & loved ones,” she wrote before thanking law enforcement for facing “skyrocketing violent crimes.”
But Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who is no stranger of denouncing pro-Trump colleagues, asked his followers in a tweet whether they knew “@EliseStefanik pushes white replacement theory?”
“@GOPLeader should be asked about this,” he said, referencing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). His office did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.
Kinzinger was referring to a series of Facebook ads published in September 2021 by Stefanik’s campaign committee that charged that Democrats were allowing undocumented immigrants into the United States as a ploy to outnumber, and eventually silence, Republican voters.
“Radical Democrats are planning their most aggressive move yet: a PERMANENT ELECTION INSURRECTION,” reads one of the ads, which shows a reflection of migrants in sunglasses Biden is wearing. “Their plan to grant amnesty to 11 MILLION illegal immigrants will overthrow our current electorate and create a permanent liberal majority in Washington.”
Rep. Stefanik claims in ads that Democrats seek a ‘permanent election insurrection’ by providing pathways to citizenship
It’s a similar argument frequently espoused by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, leading the Anti-Defamation League to repeatedly call for his firing since April 2021 after he appeared to endorse the concept during one of his segments.
Tucker Carlson twists Biden’s 2015 comments to push conspiracy theory
On Sept. 22, Fox News host Tucker Carlson misrepresented past immigration remarks by President Biden to suggest the existence of the “great replacement theory.” (Video: Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)
A Stefanik spokesman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about her thinking, said the ads were pushed at the time when New York City was debating whether to allow roughly 1 million non-residents the chance to vote only in local elections. City council approved the measure in December, allowing those living in NYC for over 30 days with a work permit — not undocumented immigrants — to partake.
In a scathing editorial responding to the “despicable” ads, Stefanik’s hometown newspaper, the Times Union of Albany, wrote that the New York representative “isn’t so brazen as to use the slogans themselves; rather, she couches the hate in alarmist anti-immigrant rhetoric that’s become standard fare for the party of Donald Trump.”
In response, Stefanik said Republicans stand for “legal immigration while Democrats support amnesty for illegals.”
“To equate opposition to illegal immigration with Nazism and white supremacy is a desperate attempt to stoke outrage & avoid covering Joe Biden’s border crisis,” she wrote in a Facebook post.