ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Trump called her an incredibly strong, tough and smart America First fighter. NPR congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh is here to tell us more about her. Hi, Deirdre.
DEIRDRE WALSH, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.
SHAPIRO: This is one of the very first cabinet picks. Tell us about Stefanik and her ties to Trump.
WALSH: Well, loyalty to Trump is really a top consideration for joining his cabinet. As he points out today in his statement, Stefanik was the first member of Congress to endorse Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. She's currently the No. 4 House Republican leader and the highest-ranking woman in the House. She was also on the short list to be his vice presidential pick.
Stefanik has been a vocal defender of Trump's - really got noticed during his first impeachment back in 2019. Trump really likes allies who can go on television and be really aggressive and combative. Stefanik did this and got a lot of national attention back in December during a hearing with college presidents that focused on allegations of antisemitism on college campuses. This followed the protest following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Stefanik went to Harvard, and she aggressively questioned Claudine Gay, who was the university president there at the time.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELISE STEFANIK: Calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard code of conduct, correct?
CLAUDINE GAY: Again, it depends on the context.
STEFANIK: It does not depend on the context. The answer is yes, and this is why you should resign.
WALSH: Gay later did resign. And Stefanik's role battling figures who many on the political right consider elites who are hostile to conservatives really earned her a lot of praise in Trump's orbit.
SHAPIRO: But she wasn't always known as a MAGA Republican. Tell us about her political background.
WALSH: Right. She's really shifted. And Stefanik's political arc really tracks with Trump's emergence and influence over the Republican Party. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan was her early mentor. She worked for the 2012 Romney-Ryan presidential campaign. Ryan helped recruit her to run for Congress. When she was elected in 2014 to the House, she was just 30 years old and the youngest woman elected to Congress at the time. Her district was a lot more purple then. She was really viewed as sort of a pro-business lawmaker who reached across the aisle on issues.
But as her district became more red and as Trump dominated the Republican Party, Stefanik really became one of his top allies on the Hill. She was among the group of Republicans who objected to the 2020 election results in January 2021. And she ran against the House Republican Conference chair, Liz Cheney, back in 2021 after Cheney was forced out of the job for breaking with Trump.
SHAPIRO: This is a role that requires Senate confirmation. What can you tell us about Stefanik's views on foreign policy?
WALSH: She doesn't really have a lot of foreign policy experience, per se. She does serve on the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees. She voted for aid to Ukraine in 2022 at the start of that war but was the only member of House Republican leadership to vote no on this last package of $61 billion back in April.
With Republicans poised to take control of the Senate in January, she's expected to be confirmed easily. She's been a strong supporter of Israel. In terms of the U.N., she has called for cutting off funding for the U.N. relief agency that assists Palestinian refugees. She's called for pushing, quote, "a maximum pressure campaign with Iran."
In terms of diplomacy with Trump stepping back from alliances, it seems like that will affect her role at the U.N. And that's also reflected in a statement that she put out today that says, quote, "America continues to be the beacon of the world, but we expect and must demand that our friends and allies be strong partners in the peace we seek."
SHAPIRO: It looks like control of the House is going to come down to just a few seats.
WALSH: Right.
SHAPIRO: If she leaves Congress, is that likely to have an impact?
WALSH: Not in the long term - I mean, her district is solidly red. In this short term, if Stefanik is confirmed sometime early next year and resigns her seat, the governor of New York has to announce a special election. Republican leaders will be eager to fill that vacancy fast.
SHAPIRO: And in just a sentence or two, can you tell us about another announcement - Lee Zeldin to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency?
WALSH: Another New York Republican - he's a lawyer. He was also part of Trump's impeachment defense team back in 2019.
SHAPIRO: All right, that's NPR's Deirdre Walsh. Thank you.
WALSH: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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