'Hitler was influential': Elise Stefanik buried after being named to Time's top 100 list

Rep. Elise Stefanik this week was named one of Time's 100 most influential people, sparking an almost immediate comparison to fascist and totalitarian leaders the magazine has similarly honored in the past. Stefanik was chosen as the highest-ranking woman in the House GOP, a leader in conservative causes such as diversity and inclusion policy challenges and attacks on Ivy League universities, and a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, according to Time's profile from correspondent Charlotte Alter. Stefanik shares her position as a top influential leader with Yulia Navalnaya, the widowed economist dubbed the first lady of Russia's resistance; E. Jean Carroll, the writer who successfully sued Trump for $83.3 million; special counsel Jack Smith, the federal prosecutor leading two of Trump's four criminal cases; and Li Quiang, China's second-in-command premiere Time describes as having "consolidated more executive power than any other Chinese leader since Mao Zedong." While Stefanik's supporters painted her inclusion on this list as a clear political win, Time's decision — and Stefanik's rhetoric around the 2020 presidential election — frustrated Huffington Post's senior political reporter Jennifer Bendery. Another user noted the magazine's decision to include Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine spurred warnings from political experts that the nation was moving toward "hybrid totalitarianism."