WASHINGTON – Rep. Elise Stefanik took a less prominent role Tuesday in the defense of President Donald Trump in the House impeachment inquiry, waiting more than three hours before making her first comments at a public hearing.

Unlike Friday’s hearing of the House Intelligence Committee, Stefanik refrained from picking battles with Democrats that prompted Trump to call her “a new Republican star.”

Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, quietly waited her turn to question witnesses as nearly a dozen other Democrats and Republicans with seniority took their 5-minute turns in the spotlight.

For Stefanik, it was a stark contrast to Friday when she stepped into the national spotlight as one of Trump’s top defenders in the impeachment inquiry and repeatedly clashed with committee chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

Stefanik mounted a vigorous defense of Trump in the House hearing room and on Twitter, where she engaged in a weekend war of words with George Conway, who called her “lying trash.”

The attention helped her Democratic opponent in the 2020 election, Tedra Cobb, of Canton in St. Lawrence County, raise more than $1 million over the weekend with the help from Conway and other critics of the president.

On Tuesday, Stefanik sat quietly and stayed off Twitter through the morning as GOP Reps. Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan took the lead in the party’s questioning of the two witnesses.

For more than four hours, committee members questioned Jennifer Williams and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the two witnesses who listened in on Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The phone call sparked the impeachment inquiry after a government whistleblower reported that Trump asked Ukraine to help investigate Joe Biden and political rivals in exchange for freeing up military aid to the country that had been authorized by Congress.

Williams, a State Department employee who worked in the office of Vice President Mike Pence as an adviser for Europe and Russia, testified she found the call to be unusual and inappropriate.

Vindman, a staffer on the National Security Council who listened in on the call in the White House situation room, testified that he had similar concerns.

“Without hesitation I knew I had to report this to White House counsel,” Vindman testified, when asked his initial reaction to Trump’s request. “It was inappropriate. It was improper of the president to demand an investigation into a political opponent.”

When Stefanik questioned the witnesses Tuesday, she attempted to paint Trump’s request as an appropriate concern about Ukraine’s effort to crack down on corruption in the country.

Stefanik brought up Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company that appointed Hunter Biden to its board of directors when Joe Biden served as vice president.

She also criticized Schiff for refusing to allow Republicans on the committee to call Hunter Biden as a witness.

“I know that my constituents in NY-21 have many concerns about the fact that Hunter Biden, the son of the vice president, sat on the board of a corrupt company like Burisma,” Stefanik said.

She asked Vindman if he agreed that Hunter Biden’s appointment had the potential for an appearance of a conflict of interest.

“Certainly, the potential, yes,” Vindman said.

Stefanik pointed out that U.S. military aid to Ukraine and other countries was tied by law to anti-corruption efforts.

But Rep. Eric Swallwell, D-Calif., who asked questions after Stefanik, noted that Ukraine had already been certified by the U.S. for its anti-corruption efforts prior to Trump’s phone call.

Two more witnesses are due to testify Tuesday afternoon -- Kurt Volker, former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, and Tim Morrison, a White House aide with the National Security Council.

Read more:

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Upstate NY Rep. Elise Stefanik seizes spotlight in impeachment hearings

Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751

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