While Republican senators are confident that most of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees will be confirmed, Elise Stefanik is expected to sail through her confirmation with bipartisan support in the Senate. The outgoing New York congresswoman was nominated as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations just days after Trump’s November election victory.
Before her nomination, Stefanik served as the third-highest-ranking member of the House and gained national attention for her stance against pro-Palestine protests on college campuses last year. The New York Republican questioned presidents of Ivy League schools about allowing weeks-long protests that featured violent rhetoric targeting Jews and pro-Israel students.
During a particularly heated hearing, Stefanik questioned former Harvard University President Claudine Gay—who eventually resigned amid plagiarism allegations—about specific incidents. The congresswoman cited examples including Harvard students calling for an “intifada” and chanting, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
“You understand that the use of the term intifada in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict is indeed a call for violent armed resistance against the state of Israel, including violence against civilians and the genocide of Jews,” Stefanik asked Gay, who refused to condemn the rhetoric.
Senator Tammy Duckworth (D–IL), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Hill that she is open to supporting Elise Stefanik following her confirmation hearing next week. This openness contrasts sharply with her stance on Defense Department nominee Pete Hegseth and Justice Department nominee Pam Bondi during their respective confirmation hearings earlier in the week.
“She made it very clear that she was accessible and she wasn’t walking away from the United Nations,” Duckworth the outlet. “I thought it was good she said she would engage with the U.N. and really take on the role.” Trump frequently criticized the United Nations during his first term. In 2018, he directed then-UN Ambassador Nikki Haley to withdraw from the body’s Human Rights Council, citing its inclusion of authoritarian regimes and its failure to accurately address human rights abuses.
Duckworth and other Senate Democrats are reportedly satisfied with Stefanik’s positions on continued cooperation. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) is another Democrat who has offered his tacit support to Stefanik pending the outcome of her confirmation hearing. “I’m nervous a little bit about how [Trump] would approach some of these international organizations. Can they be frustrating? Yes. But when the U.S. disengages, it gets worse, not better for us. So I’m nervous about that,” Kaine said, adding that his meeting with Stefanik was “good” and “substantial.”