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Elise Stefanik Calls Mike Johnson A Liar

WASHINGTON ― Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) accused House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) of lying Tuesday about why a priority of hers was left out of a defense policy bill.

It started Monday with Stefanik complaining on social media “the deep state” was blocking her proposal to require the Justice Department to notify Congress of investigations into presidential candidates.

Johnson said Tuesday it wasn’t true. “I don’t exactly know why Elise won’t just call me,” he told reporters at a press conference, adding that the question of whether to include the provision in a defense bill hadn’t even been brought to his attention.

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“Just more lies from the Speaker,” Stefanik wrote Tuesday. “It wasn’t on your radar? This is the ONLY provision in the bill to root out the deep state rot.”

It’s a striking rebuke from a top House Republican ― one who was a member of Johnson’s leadership team until Trump nominated her to be ambassador to the United Nations last year. Stefanik withdrew from leadership only for Trump to withdraw her nomination this year over concerns about Republicans’ tiny House majority.

Stefanik has since announced a bid for governor of New York, and bashing “the deep state” in Washington could be advantageous for her campaign.

The proposal in question is a response to the supposedly corrupt investigation of President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign for colluding with Russia. An investigation into the Russia probe faulted investigators for being overly aggressive but failed to turn up significant “witch hunt” activity by the deep state.

Stefanik’s rebuke comes as Johnson contends with multiple high-profile Republican dissidents in the House, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who sided with Stefanik on Tuesday.

“As usual from the Speaker, promises made promises broken. We all know it,” Greene wrote on X.