U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) attends an event honoring the LSU baseball NCAA national champions and the LSU-Shreveport baseball NAIA national champions at the White House in Washington, D.C., October 20, 2025.
The Washington Post reports Rep. Elise Stefanik is ramping up her criticism of House Speaker Mike Johnson, calling him an ineffective leader who is losing his grip on the GOP House.
“He certainly wouldn’t have the votes to be speaker if there was a roll-call vote tomorrow,” said Stefanik, who dragged Johnson’s strength as the party moves into what could be a punishing midterm election next year. “I believe that the majority of Republicans would vote for new leadership. It’s that widespread.”
Her comments came on the heels of a public sparring match with Johnson concerning oversight-related language she wanted included in the annual defense-policy bill.
“I just walked out of a briefing on this issue this morning CONFIRMING everything I posted yesterday, that, yes, in fact, the Speaker is blocking my provision to root out the illegal weaponization that led to Crossfire Hurricane, Arctic Frost, and more,” Stefanik said Tuesday on X. “He is siding with [Rep.] Jamie Raskin [D-Md.] against Trump Republicans to block this provision to protect the deep state.”
By Tuesday afternoon, Stefanik was ready to vote against the defense bill in protest. But on Tuesday night President Donald Trump intervened in the feud and by Wednesday morning, Stefanik announced on X that she’d had a “productive discussion” with Johnson and Trump and that her provision would be returned to the bill.
One day after claiming to have no participation in the removal of the language, Johnson told reporters that the dispute came from a breakdown in communication
“I never understood what all the disturbance was about,” Johnson said, according to the WSJ. Instead, Johnson argued that committee leaders removed Stefanik’s language — without mentioning that the House Speaker can direct committee action from outside the committee.
But while admitting the end of this particular fight, the Journal reports Stefanik described Johnson’s standing with House Republicans as in a state of collapse, particularly on his decision to keep lawmakers in their home districts during the recent government shutdown, weak showings in special elections and his failure to address the expected jump in healthcare costs if the party doesn’t reach an agreement with Democrats soon.
“It’s all bubbling over,” said Stefanik. “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.”
The Journal reports Stefanik also waved off Johnson’s relationship to Trump, arguing that the president “is the leader of the Republicans and he certainly doesn’t need Mike Johnson.”
The Journal reports Johnson allies like Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) saying “I don’t know why she’s choosing this moment to go after Mike. He’s honest, he’s caring. He truly is the man that he reports himself to be.”
But other critics, like Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), say Johnson is angering lawmakers over his refusal to tackle issues like congressional insider trading. The Journal reports other Republicans, including Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) criticized Johnson’s strategy for keeping House members home during the recent government shutdown.
Read the Wall Street Journal report at this link.
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