IT'S NOT THE MEDIA'S JOB TO CREATE AN AUDITION REEL FOR A WANNABE TRUMP RUNNING MATE

There's a case to be made that Elise Stefanik is a suitable guest for Sunday morning talk shows at this moment because she just scored two kills: the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania have now lost their jobs in large part because she targeted them at a House hearing.

But that wasn't the main reason Stefanik was asked to appear on Meet the Press yesterday. She was invited primarily because she's a Donald Trump surrogate. The House show trial at which the college presidents were targeted wasn't mentioned in the first eight minutes of the seventeen-minute interview; other House business -- specifically, negotiations seeking to avoid a government shutdown -- weren't mentioned until more than fourteen minutes into the interview, even though she's the #4 House Republican.

Stefanik was on TV for one principal reason: She wanted to audition for the job of Donald Trump's running mate, and NBC effectively said to her, "Sure, we'll let you do that on our airwaves." The final questions make this obvious:

KRISTEN WELKER:

Before I let you go, I have to talk to you about your future. Former President Trump, in his interview with me, said he, quote, "likes the concept of picking a woman as his vice president." If called upon, would you serve as his vice president?

REP. ELISE STEFANIK:

Well, I, of course, would be honored to serve in any capacity in a Trump administration. I'm proud to be the first member of Congress to endorse his reelection. I'm proud to be a strong supporter of President Trump, and he's going to win this November.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Have you spoken to the former president about the possibility of running as his VP pick?

REP. ELISE STEFANIK:

I'm not going to get into the content of my conversation with President Trump. I talk to him frequently. We've been focused on winning. There's so much work to do as the House Republican Conference chair, as the reproductive for New York's 21st congressional district. And we need to make sure that President Trump is in the strongest position to win in the general election. That's what I've been focused on, and that's what I'm going to remain focused on –

KRISTEN WELKER:

Just to put a very fine point on it, it sounds like you're saying if he were to ask you, the answer would be yes?

REP. ELISE STEFANIK:

Well, I've said for a year now I'd be honored to serve in the next Trump administration. But I'm focused on doing my job right now, which is a really important role as the conference chair and as, most importantly, the representative for the people of New York 21.

Oksy, I'll do some theater criticism now: Stefanik has skills. Her speech is articulate and crisp. She talks in complete sentences and rarely stumbles over a word. She's astonishingly good at pointing her chin forward and Gish-galloping her way through half a dozen incendiary Fox News/MAGA talking points in a 45-second answer. She knows the rhythm of these shows: hosts regard it as rude to interrupt an interviewee's mini-monologues, even when they're obviously dishonest, so she knows she can squeeze off a few slanders without being challenged, and if her interviewer circles back to something that's obviously a lie or a distortion, she can repeat the process and fire off six new slanders in the next extended, uninterrupted answer.

So between this and the recent House hearings, I think she's got the job. I think the books that will be published in 2025 and 2026 recounting the "inside story" of the 2024 campaign will tell us that Trump watched this interview closely and came away thinking Stefanik has the right stuff to be his #2.

But giving a platform to a VP wannabe so she can audition for a presidential candidate shouldn't be the mainstream media's job. Maybe it's Fox's job -- Fox, after all, is an organ of the Republican Party. But NBC and other ostensibly non-Republican media outlets should do better.