{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://stefanik.house.gov/2024/12/icymi-press-republican-in-my-opinion-stefanik-right-choice-for-un", "ICYMI: Press Republican: In my Opinion: Stefanik right choice for UN", "2024-12-02", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "House", "NY", "Elise M. Stefanik", "S001196", "stefanik.house.gov", "stefanik", "https://stefanik.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "Press Republican: In my Opinion: Stefanik right choice for UN\n\nBy John J. Metzler\n\nShowdowns loom in the new year as New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has been nominated to serve as United Nations Ambassador by the President-elect Donald Trump.\n\nShould she be approved by the Senate, Rep. Stefanik who has served in the U.S. Congress for a decade representing upstate New York\u2019s 21st Congressional District, will venture to Turtle Bay on New York\u2019s East River to represent the United States at a place where conflict, acrimony and dysfunction abound.\n\nStefanik will enter the UN at a time, not unlike some of her predecessors such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan or Jeanne Kirkpatrick, or even Nikki Haley when the American agenda and values are under steady attack by authoritarian regimes.\n\nIt\u2019s the duty of the Ambassador to push back and regain the political high ground. But that\u2019s easier said than done in the 193 member multinational body where the perennial Palestinian debate has been supplemented by many other simultaneous combustible global issues from the Korean Peninsula to Ukraine.\n\nA major ground war rages in Europe, the Middle East is in conflict, regional wars and humanitarian crises in Sudan, Syria, and the Sahel, not to mention the greatly expanded role of communist China\u2019s influence and threats to the international order, and you begin to see the setting.\n\nNavigating the daunting complexities of the current international situation and seeking out diplomatic victories remains an ongoing challenge.\n\nThen there are the issues of mass human rights violations of Afghan women by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban in the aftermath of the Biden/Harris Administration\u2019s shameful pullout, the churning chaos in Haiti, and the mass illegal migrations into the United States (and many European countries too). Add the perennial undertow of poverty and privation in so many places globally and you begin to see the picture.\n\nElise Stefanik (40) who entered Congress decade ago as the youngest elected woman, has her work cut out for her. She serves as a senior Member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee and Chairwoman of the House Republican conference.\n\nHer 21st Congressional District encompasses a huge swath of land encompassing the Adirondack Mountains, Lake Placid and Upstate New York bordering Canada.\n\nA staunch Trump loyalist, Stefanik will press for President Trump\u2019s \u201cPeace through Strength\u201d mandate at a time when it\u2019s sorely needed but will be seriously challenged. As she stated, \u201cThe work ahead is immense as we see antisemitism skyrocketing coupled with four years of catastrophically weak U.S. leadership that significantly weakened our national security and diminished our standing in the eyes of both allies and adversaries.\u201d\n\nViewing the UN she stated, there should be a \u201ccomplete reassessment of U.S. funding of the United Nations\u201d after the Palestinian Authority attempted to expel Israel from the UN over human rights abuses in Gaza.\n\nStefanik remains a strong and dedicated supporter of Israel and a fierce critic of Hamas, Hezbollah and their Iranian paymasters.\n\nHer debating skills were honed as a Harvard University graduate. Though a Catholic, she is a strong and dedicated defender of Israel and moreover a vocal critic of the vile anti-Semitism which has plagued the U.S. over the past few years, especially since the horrific Hamas attacks on Israel of October 7, 2023.\n\nStefanik gained national acclaim last December for her tough questioning of some university presidents during widely televised Congressional hearings on anti-Semitism.\n\nFollowing the hearings, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill and Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned from their posts amid widespread disgust for waffling in their answers to Stefanik\u2019s searing questions. Her actions against anti-Semitism stand as a singular achievement supporting religious freedoms and genuine academic discourse.\n\nOn Human Rights issues, she\u2019s poised herself as a powerful critic of both China and Russia. But contrary to the days of Moynihan, or Kirkpatrick, now a generation ago, there\u2019s a far more dangerous political dynamic at the UN, one that Nikki Haley had to navigate daily.\n\nThe powerful fifteen member Security Council where the United States is among the five permanent members Communist China, France, Russia and the United Kingdom remains politically deadlocked for a decade.\n\nShe has slammed Putin\u2019s invasion and aggression in Ukraine but does not believe in giving the Kyiv government a blank American check.\n\nWith the UN\u2019s 80th anniversary looming in 2025, it may be more difficult to challenge budgets never mind the bloated bureaucracy of an organization the U.S. helped create in the aftermath of WWII.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T22:13:55Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://stefanik.house.gov/2024/12/icymi-press-republican-in-my-opinion-stefanik-right-choice-for-un"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9685370605438948, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}