Harvard University has announced it is removing Elise Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman of New York, from an advisory committee over her role in promoting baseless claims of widespread fraud in the presidential election.

Doug Elmendorf, the dean of Harvard Kennedy School, said Stefanik would no longer serve on the school’s Senior Advisory Committee, following a review by school leaders.

“Elise has made public assertions about voter fraud in November’s presidential election that have no basis in evidence, and she has made public statements about court actions related to the election that is incorrect,” Elmendorf said in a statement.

“Moreover, these assertions and statements do not reflect policy disagreements but bear on the foundations of the electoral process through which this country’s leaders are chosen.”

Elmendorf said he asked Stefanik, who graduated from Harvard in 2006, to step aside from the board. After she declined to do so, Elmendorf removed her from the post.

In characteristic fashion, Stefanik blamed Harvard’s decision to hold her accountable for spreading lies that culminated in a riot at the Capitol on cancel culture.

• “As a conservative Republican, it is a rite of passage and badge of honor to join the long line of leaders who have been boycotted, protested, and canceled by colleges and universities across America,” Stefanik said.

Donald Trump refused to take responsibility for his role in the riot at the Capitol, claiming his words to supporters shortly before the violence were “totally appropriate”.

Speaking to reporters shortly before leaving for Texas to champion his work on the border wall, the president was asked about a pro-Trump mob storming the Capitol last week.

“We want no violence,” Trump said. “On the impeachment, it’s really a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics.” He added, “I think it’s causing tremendous danger to our country, and it’s causing tremendous anger. I want no violence.”

During a separate gaggle with reporters shortly after he made those comments, Trump was asked what his role was in the violent riot.

“People thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump said of his speech to supporters shortly before the riot.

In that speech, the president explicitly told his supporters to march to the Capitol as lawmakers certified Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential race. Five people have died as a result of the violence.

A third member of the House of Representatives has tested positive for coronavirus after lawmakers were forced to shelter in place together during the violent riot at the Capitol last week.

Brad Schneider, a Democrat of Illinois, announced his diagnosis in a statement that specifically called out Republicans who refused to wear masks during the lockdown.

“Last Wednesday, after narrowly escaping a violent mob incited by the President of the United States to attack the Capitol and its occupants, I was forced to spend several hours in a secure but confined location with dozens of other members of Congress,” Schneider said in a statement.

“Several Republican lawmakers in the room adamantly refused to wear a mask, as demonstrated in the video from Punchbowl News, even when politely asked by their colleagues. Today, I am now in strict isolation, worried that I have risked my wife’s health and angry at the selfishness and arrogance of the anti-maskers who put their own contempt and disregard for decency ahead of the health and safety of their colleagues and our staff.”

Schneider is the third House member to test positive since last Wednesday. Fellow Democrats Pramila Jayapal and Bonnie Watson Coleman have also announced they were diagnosed with coronavirus.

Schneider said he has thankfully not yet experienced any symptoms and is receiving excellent medical care.

“Wearing a mask is not a political statement, it is public health guidance, common courtesy, and simply what should be expected of all decent people,” Schneider added in the statement.

“We can no longer tolerate Members coming to the floor or gathering in the halls of Congress without doing the bare minimum to protect those around them.”