Elise Stefanik and Mike Johnson Bury the Hatchet — for Now

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and Speaker Mike Johnson have settled their simmering feud for the time being, after Mr. Johnson committed to supporting a new counterintelligence reform from the North Country Republican congresswoman. Ms. Stefanik and Mr. Johnson have not had the warmest relationship since her nomination for U.N. ambassador was pulled earlier this year due to Mr. Johnson’s concerns about his House majority. Ms. Stefanik issued her first scathing statement about Mr. Johnson on Monday, saying that he was getting “rolled” by Democrats because he was not backing a reform to congressional authorization when lawmakers and candidates are subject of a federal investigation. Under Ms. Stefanik’s proposed reform in the Intelligence Authorization Act, federal lawmakers, federal candidates, and certain staffers would be entitled to such notifications. “My provision will strengthen this accountability and transparency to deter this illegal weaponization and it passed out of the House Intelligence Committee in this Congress and previous ones. Yet House Republicans continue to get rolled by the deep state due to opposition by Jamie Raskin,” Ms. Stefanik wrote, referring to the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. “Unless this provision is added back into the bill to prevent illegal political weaponization of the intelligence community in our elections, I am a HARD NO,” she said. When the speaker was asked about Ms. Stefanik’s comments the following day, he said that he was unaware of the issue. After he made that claim, Ms. Stefanik accused him of lying. “[T]rue to form, the Speaker texted me yesterday claiming he ‘knew nothing about it.’ Yeah right,” the New York congresswoman, who is running for governor, wrote. “This is his preferred tactic to tell Members when he gets caught torpedoing the Republican agenda.”On Wednesday, however, Ms. Stefanik said that she had spoken with both Mr. Johnson and President Trump, who both promised to work with her to include her proposal in the Intelligence Authorization Act. “This is a significant legislative win delivered against the illegal weaponization of the deep state,” she said. Her joy at their agreement, however, came after Ms. Stefanik lambasted the speaker during an interview with the Wall Street Journal. She went so far as to predict that if an election for speaker were held today, Mr. Johnson would lose handily. “He certainly wouldn’t have the votes to be speaker if there was a roll-call vote tomorrow,” she told the Journal. “I believe that the majority of Republicans would vote for new leadership. It’s that widespread.” “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 added. Mr. Johnson himself has admitted that he does not have as much control over his conference as he may like. Back in January, during the last floor vote for speaker, Mr. Johnson had to enlist the help of Mr. Trump in order to secure a majority and win his second term in the job after several conservative lawmakers threatened to kill his nomination. After Mr. Trump spoke to those members, they dropped their opposition to Mr. Johnson’s candidacy. In an interview with conservative podcaster Katie Miller — the wife of White House aide Stephen Miller — earlier this week, Mr. Johnson said that his job has been more about constantly putting out fires because he is constantly in “triage.” He says he has not taken a vacation in two years, and that he rarely gets the opportunity to cook for himself as he’s hearing complaints from his colleagues at all hours of the day and night. “We have this joke that I’m not really a speaker of the House,” Mr. Johnson said on Ms. Miller’s podcast.

Elise Stefanik and Mike Johnson Bury the Hatchet — for Now

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