Feud between onetime pals turned enemies Melissa DeRosa, possible VP pick Rep. Elise Stefanik erupts over Cuomo aide’s tell-all book

An Albany feud between onetime pals Melissa DeRosa and Rep. Elise Stefanik has boiled over once more because of a bizarre incident involving DeRosa’s recent tell-all book, we hear.

In the book, “What’s Left Unsaid,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s former top lieutenant DeRosa, 38, recounts how she and Donald Trump’s current surrogate Stefanik, 36, met in 1995 as students at the Albany Academy for Girls, “the oldest all-girls prep day school in the country.”

But the pair got into a screaming match during COVID and haven’t spoken since.

Now the battle has blown up again, we hear, over an alleged incident at a local upstate bookstore when Stefanik’s mom weighed in on the tome.

Back in their school days at the elite Albany Academy, DeRosa viewed Stefanik — who’s now a potential vice president pick for Trump — as a “spunky, incredibly smart, and very obviously driven student.”

The future Democrat and Republican players even joined forces when running for student council to “form a new slate” and “cut a mutually beneficial deal,” that would “set up the path to our individual political careers,” and win them both the school election.

When the former classmates wound up in Washington, DC, after attending Ivy League schools, DeRosa writes, “People would ask how Elise and I could even speak to each other, given our political differences.”

Stefanik and DeRosa were all smiles at a 2015 class reunion. melissadderosa/Instagram Melissa DeRosa recalls how her friendship with Rep. Elise Stefanik went south. Getty Images

But the former classmates, “attended each other’s weddings, and went to one another for professional and personal advice.”

DeRosa still has a photo from Stefanik’s wedding posted on Instagram with the caption, “She may be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, but to me she will always be my middle school student council running mate & snack machine negotiator. Congrats gorgeous bride.”

The unlikely friendship ended during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Stefanik publicly called DeRosa’s boss, Cuomo, “the worst governor in America” for his handling of the crisis, and DeRosa privately accused her in a phone call of being a “partisan hack,” she writes in the book. That was the last time they spoke.

DeRosa and Stefanik’s falling out was over the COVID-19 pandemic. melissadderosa/Instagram

(Stefanik has not commented on DeRosa’s recollections in the book. But sources previously told the Post in 2021 that the phone call about Cuomo’s COVID policies ended their friendship, but they alleged that DeRosa “screamed” at and “bullied” Stefanik.)

DeRosa’s book also claims that Stefanik was jealous of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and that, Stefanik successfully became “the AOC of the right.”

Now the book has driven a further wedge between the pair, it seems.

The book also takes aim at Donald Trump, Letitia James and more political players. Union Square & Co.

In the latest chapter for the upstate frenemies, a source claimed to Page Six that, “Stefanik’s mother stormed into a local independent bookstore in Albany to complain that the store was carrying” DeRosa’s tell-all.

Said the source, “Apparently she was furious that DeRosa’s book is getting this kind of attention and attempted to demand the store stop promoting it,” adding, “it feels like a middle schooler whose mom was bursting into the principal’s office, except these are grown, professional women.”

Stefanik is now being buzzed about as a potential VP pick. AFP via Getty Images

But a senior adviser for Stefanik, Alex DeGrasse, fired back when we asked about the alleged incident, “This is false,” and further explained, “Congresswoman Stefanik’s mom purchased many books for Christmas for her 2-year-old grandson, Sam, and when finding out her last name, a store clerk tried to push her to buy a signed copy of Melissa DeRosa’s book. She refused because she does not support Cuomo’s crony criminals. She completed her purchase of the children’s books and returned to work.”

The same rep also alleged that, “Melissa was caught buying her own book on Black Friday in Saratoga [at Barnes & Noble] to try to juice the sales.”

DeGrasse added, “The Black Friday book binge obviously didn’t work. She is now a failed author just like her disgraced boss Cuomo.”

DeRosa’s tell-all has seemingly fanned the flames of the former friends’ feud. Getty Images

A different source said that DeRosa was at the store purchasing a book for a local pal, and scoffed that one copy wouldn’t exactly juice sales.

A spokesperson for DeRosa told us: “Melissa has no comment on any of Elise’s antics.”

When asked about the relationship with Stefanik going south at a book launch event in the fall, DeRosa had reportedly said, “It’s kind of tragic.”

Sources have previously recounted the call that allegedly ended the friendship in 2021. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

The book also takes aim at Trump, Jared Kushner, Chris Cuomo, President Biden and Letitia James, among others, while defending Cuomo. It has also been feted at book parties by some of DeRosa’s famous friends including Katie Holmes, Alec and Hilaria Baldwin and Hollywood producer Jane Rosenthal.

The flames of the feud between DeRosa and Stefanik could be fanned even further: We’ve previously reported that DeRosa has left the door open for a potential political run herself.