President Trump in a tweet early Sunday labeled Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) a “new Republican Star.”
“A new Republican Star is born. Great going @EliseStefanik!” he tweeted.
Trump made the remark while sharing a post from One America News Network host Liz Wheeler that included a clip of Stefanik questioning former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch during Friday’s public impeachment inquiry hearing.
“Holy cow. Rep. @EliseStefanik absolutely wrecks Adam Schiff & the Democrats’ entire impeachment premise,” Wheeler tweeted, referring to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
Stefanik during last week’s hearings emerged as a key defender of Trump on the Intelligence Committee.
Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) at one point tried to turn the microphone over to Stefanik rather than GOP counsel, as mandated in a Democratic-written rule, causing Schiff to gavel her down.
Stefanik and Schiff at the first public hearing on Wednesday also got into a heated exchange over the identity of the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the impeachment inquiry into Trump.
“Will you be prohibiting witnesses from answering members’ questions as you have in the closed-door depositions?” she asked.
Schiff responded that the only time he did so was “when it was apparent that members were seeking to out the whistleblower.”
“I’m disturbed to hear members of the committee who have in the past voiced strong support for whistleblower protections seek to undermine those protections by outing the whistleblower,” he added.
Trump on Sunday morning also retweeted posts from Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee and Stefanik herself.
Stefanik is on fire, the Oversight Committee Republicans tweeted, adding that “@RepAdamSchiff can do nothing but watch his #impeachment sham crumble.”
“How many times can Adam Schiff say ‘the Gentlewoman is NOT recognized’?” Stefanik asked. “He clearly has NO interest in letting Republicans have any say in the impeachment hearings. Watch him interrupt us multiple times and refuse to yield for our parliamentary questions.”
Later Sunday, Trump also slammed former George W. Bush campaign aide and ABC contributor Matthew Dowd for a since-deleted tweet that read, “Elise Stefanik is a perfect example of why just electing someone because they are a woman or a millennial doesn’t necessarily get you the leaders we need.”
“Dowd never understood the pulse of the Republican Party, present or past. He’s just a 3rd rate hit job for Fake News @ABC!” Trump wrote.
Stefanik last week called Dowd’s comment “reprehensible.”
This report was updated at 9:54 a.m.