Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York called out Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut Tuesday after Murphy brought up a gesture Tesla CEO Elon Musk made during a Monday event.
Liberal media outlets as well as Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex of New York seized on the gesture Musk made while giving a speech during Trump’s inaugural festivities, claiming the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chairman gave a Nazi salute. Murphy asked Stefanik about Musk’s gesture during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing about her nomination to serve as ambassador to the United Nations.
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“What do you think about Trump’s most visible advisor, Elon Musk, performing a Nazi salute?” Murphy asked Stefanik during the hearing.
“That is simply not the case,” Stefanik said. “To say so – the American people see through it. They support Elon Musk.”
The Anti-Defamation League explained that Musk’s gesture was not a Nazi salute in a Monday post on X, noting that it was an “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm.”
“But right-wing commentators celebrated it. White supremacists rallied behind it. Does that concern you?” Murphy asked, pressing Stefanik.
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“What concerns me is – this is what you believe is most important to ask the U.N. ambassador,” Stefanik said. “President Trump earned historic from voters because of his leadership against antisemitism.”
Stefanik called out top college administrators during House Education Committee hearings in December 2023 over anti-Israel protests in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by the radical Islamic terrorist group Hamas in southern Israel that killed over 1,200 people.
Stefanik also was an outspoken defender of President Donald Trump following the 2020 election, criticizing the select Jan. 6 committee established by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She also filed an ethics complaint against New York Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw Trump’s criminal trial on felony charges of falsifying business documents.
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