New details are emerging about the fraught dynamic between House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and a senior member of the House Republican Conference after President Donald Trump named her to a Cabinet post.The Atlantic recently reported that when Trump announced that he was nominating Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as his next United Nations ambassador, it prompted the speaker to panic given that Trump’s picks were eating into an already razor-thin majority. Trump had already announced that Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) would be his new national security advisor, and that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) would be attorney general. Should Stefanik also leave Congress, it would have shrunk Johnson’s majority to just one seat.Stefanik was reportedly excited for the promotion, and had given up her position as House Republican Conference chair in expectation of her confirmation. In addition to the New York Republican, her staff also had made preparations for Stefanik’s confirmation, with her chief of staff briefly updating their job title on LinkedIn to “deputy to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.” READ MORE: ‘I wonder why’: VP brutally mocked after Usha Vance says he’s ‘very lonely’However, after learning that Johnson had been making calls to Mar-a-Lago urging Trump to reconsider picking Stefanik, the former member of House GOP leadership reportedly snapped at Johnson. The Atlantic’s Russell Berman reported that Stefanik once called the speaker and “warned Johnson not to stand in her way.” Johnson spokesperson Taylor Haulsee confided to the Atlantic that Johnson’s calls to Trump “became a running joke.” However, he added that it was “categorically false — and a flat-out lie — that in any of those conversations the speaker ever even hinted that Rep. Stefanik should not be picked for the post or that she would not do an outstanding job.”According to the Atlantic, Stefanik was reportedly planning to be confirmed the day after Florida’s two special elections for the seats vacated by Gaetz and Waltz. But when internal polls showed that the two Republicans in the typically deep-red districts were in for closer contests than previously thought — and when their Democratic opponents put up significantly larger fundraising hauls than their GOP rivals — Trump made the call to withdraw Stefanik’s nomination. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) apparently mocked his fellow New Yorker in a meeting with other Democrats after hearing the news.”t couldn’t have happened to a better person, y’all,” Jeffries said to “laughter and applause” from the House Democratic Caucus.READ MORE: ‘Rebellion’ erupts as House GOP faces ‘showdown’ with Senate RepublicansClick here to read the Atlantic’s full report (subscription required).
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