WASHINGTON — Rep. Elise Stefanik publicly tore into House Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership and privately presented him with some of the critical feedback she’s gotten from members during their discussion Tuesday, The Post has learned.
Their chat took place after Stefanik, who launched her campaign for New York governor last month, publicly raged against Johnson (R-La.) over a key provision she championed allegedly being cut from a must-pass defense authorization bill.
“We had a great discussion last night,” Stefanik (R-NY) told The Post about her Tuesday evening conversation with Johnson when pressed about their relationship after she publicly laced into him.
“I shared some of the feedback that some of the Republican members have been frustrated, that we got to move forward and focus on delivering results for the American people, which this will be one of them in the defense bill.”
Stefanik, the chairwoman of House Republican Leadership, a position Johnson created just for her, lashed out against him publicly on Monday after learning her measure to alert Congress of counterintelligence probes of federal candidates was cut from must-pass legislation.
That discovery prompted fury from Stefanik, who felt this was the GOP’s one opportunity to rein in overreach by the intelligence community, and argued she wasn’t going to let her party blow it.
“The issue was so important we’ve worked for nearly eight years on addressing this, and this is our one opportunity to get it done in this year when we have the House, the Senate and the White House,” she said, when asked about why she rebuked Johnson so forcefully.
“I just wanted to make sure we got the language in, and we achieved that by doing this.”
The New York Republican publicly accused Johnson of “getting rolled by House Dems” and called it a “scandalous disgrace” that her provision was cut.
Ultimately, on Wednesday, Stefanik revealed that following a discussion with Johnson and President Trump, her provision would get tacked into the National Defense Authorization Act and Intelligence Authorization Act.
The NDAA/IAA is legislation Congress must pass to set policy and approve funding for national security-related programs.
Johnson publicly denied knowing that her counterintelligence provision was stripped from the NDAA/IAA.
“I don’t exactly know why Elise won’t just call me. I texted her yesterday. She’s upset one of her provisions is not being made, I think, into the NDAA,” he said Tuesday. “As soon as I heard this yesterday … I wrote her and said, What are you talking about? This hasn’t even made it to my level.”
But Stefanik insisted to The Post that her team’s “understanding and communication” with Johnson’s “office was that [Rep. Jamie] Raskin opposed this, and it was taken out of the bill.”
The measure was intended to close what Stefanik describes as the “Comey loophole,” referring to former FBI Director James Comey, who led the bureau when it probed Trump’s 2016 campaign during its “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation.
“He certainly wouldn’t have the votes to be speaker if there was a roll-call vote tomorrow,” she bluntly told the Wall Street Journal in a piece published Wednesday. “I believe that the majority of Republicans would vote for new leadership. It’s that widespread.”
“It’s all bubbling over,” she added. “Whereas Kevin McCarthy was a political animal, Mike Johnson is a political novice and boy does it show, with the House Republicans underperforming for the first time in the Trump era.”
She also raised concerns about Johnson’s handling of the government shutdown fight and about the tighter-than-expected special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District.
Other GOP members, such as Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), have raised similar concerns about why the House was kept out of session for nearly two months during the government shutdown fight.
Stefanik’s public broadsides against Johnson are remarkable because of her perch in House GOP leadership.
She previously served as House GOP Conference Chair, the No. 4, but vacated that position to Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) after being nominated to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations. Trump withdrew that nomination after concluding her leaving the House could imperil the GOP’s thin majority.
Firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who is set to retire on Jan. 5, 2026, vented in August that Stefanik had been “shafted” by Johnson while railing against how Republican women are treated in Washington, DC.
“I think there’s other women – Republican women – and I’m just giving my opinion here, who are really sick and tired of them. And the one that really got shafted was Elise Stefanik,” Greene groused to the Daily Mail.
“I mean, she got screwed by Mike Johnson, and she got screwed by the White House,” Greene added. “I’m not blaming Trump, particularly. I’m blaming the people in the White House.”
When asked about Greene’s remarks, Stefanik stressed that her focus is on “making sure that we’re firing the worst governor in America.”
“Obviously, it’s very clear that the House majority is extremely slim, and it’s really important to hold this majority on behalf of not only my constituents, but for people across the country, and I was proud to be back in the House,” she explained.
“We’re moving forward. My focus is wanting to make sure that this Congress is delivering results for the American people who gave us this majority, and we have to double down on delivering these results.”
The Post reached out to Johnson’s office for comment.
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