Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) spent much of this week warring with Speaker Mike Johnson. It was a leadership scuffle that, quite frankly, we haven’t seen in some time.
But Stefanik got her way. Johnson and President Donald Trump agreed to insert into the annual Pentagon policy bill a provision that would force the FBI to alert Congress about any counterintelligence operation against a federally elected official or candidate.
During an appearance on Fly Out Day Thursday, Stefanik was insistent on ratcheting down her war of words with Johnson.
But Stefanik did offer some interesting analysis of where the House Republican Conference is right now and why there is so much tension in the ranks.
Here’s Stefanik on what’s at the heart of the complaints in the House GOP:
“Members want to be productive. They want a floor schedule that is working. They want to address major issues that their constituents care about…
“We have to deal with the big issues, such as making sure that we’re focusing on lowering health care costs, addressing affordability. And then communicate that effectively with the American people.”
Stefanik said Johnson “has plans” to do that.
Let’s be fair to Johnson for a second. The speaker has a razor-thin majority and a huge assortment of personalities who want him to lead the conference in a variety of different directions. It’s nearly impossible to juggle all these different priorities.
We asked Johnson what he thought of the unrest that was at the heart of some of Stefanik’s earlier complaints. And clearly, he doesn’t really think much.
“We have a large conference of people … and there’s a lot of opinions,” Johnson said. “We are moving a very aggressive agenda on a very short timeframe with the smallest margins in the history of this institution. So nothing’s going to be perfect.”
Interestingly enough, Stefanik – who is also running for governor of New York – said that Republicans should “engage in discussions” about a one- or three-year extension of the enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies.
“We need to deliver results that will lower health care costs,” Stefanik asserted
We asked Stefanik if she’s going to stay in the GOP leadership. She was quite non-committal.
“I think that we have a lot of work to do, and we’re going to get that work done,” she said.
