Representative Elise Stefanik, campaigning to oust Representative Liz Cheney as the Republican Party\u2019s No. 3 leader in the House for calling out President Donald J. Trump\u2019s election lies, pitched herself as an unshakable ally of the former president on Thursday, calling him the \u201cstrongest supporter of any president when it comes to standing up for the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her first public interview since announcing she would run for Ms. Cheney\u2019s post amid a drive by Republican leaders to force out the Wyoming lawmaker, Ms. Stefanik, of New York, appeared on Steve Bannon\u2019s \u201cWar Room,\u201d a hard-right program run by Mr. Trump\u2019s former strategist, and promised to unite the party under the former president\u2019s banner.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy vision is to run with support from the president and his coalition of voters,\u201d Ms. Stefanik said, referencing Mr. Trump, adding later that she was committed to \u201csending a clear message that we are one team, and that means working with the president and working with all of our excellent Republican members of Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Stefanik\u2019s glowing comments about Mr. Trump captured the contrast between her and Ms. Cheney, who has relentlessly criticized the former president for falsely claiming the election was stolen and beseeched Republican lawmakers \u2014 most recently in a scathing opinion piece on Wednesday \u2014 to excise him from the party before it collapses into irrelevance. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTrump is seeking to unravel critical elements of our constitutional structure that make democracy work \u2014 confidence in the result of elections and the rule of law,\u201d Ms. Cheney wrote. \u201cNo other American president has ever done this.\u201d<\/p>\n In the interview on Thursday, Ms. Stefanik, who voted to overturn the election results on Jan. 6 and has echoed Mr. Trump\u2019s false claims of voter fraud, repeated some of those allegations, citing \u201cunprecedented unconstitutional overreach\u201d from state officials. <\/p>\n \u201cThese are questions that are going to have to be answered before we head into the 2022 midterms,\u201d Ms. Stefanik said of the questions she raised about the legitimacy of President Biden\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n Though Ms. Cheney beat back an effort in February to replace her as conference chair following her vote to impeach Mr. Trump, most Republicans \u2014 even her allies \u2014 expect her to be stripped of the position as early as next week. Top Republican leaders who backed her earlier this year have moved to support Ms. Stefanik. <\/p>\n And many of the party\u2019s rank-and-file members, including some who agree with Ms. Cheney\u2019s caustic assessments of Mr. Trump, say privately that have grown weary of her determination to continue publicly repudiating his lies and rebuking members of her own party for their role in fueling the falsehoods that inspired the Jan. 6. riot at the Capitol.<\/p>\n