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\n

Even by the high standards of chaos for the 119th Congress, Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> being accused Tuesday by a member of his own leadership team of protecting the \u201cdeep state\u201d was a remarkable development.<\/p>\n

Rep. Elise Stefanik<\/a>\u2019s rare move to publicly accuse the speaker<\/a> of being a liar and then, in a separate provocation, signing on to an effort to force a vote on legislation Johnson has kept bottled up is the latest symptom of a House Republican Conference seemingly on a razor\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n

Increasingly, rank-and-file House Republicans are bringing their spats with Johnson into the open, suggesting the speaker is losing further control over his restive members as his already slim majority threatens to narrow further and potentially devastating midterm elections loom.<\/p>\n

Rep. Kevin Kiley <\/a>(R-Calif.), who openly challenged Johnson\u2019s decision<\/a> to keep the House out of session for seven weeks this fall and criticized him for not pushing back on the GOP\u2019s mid-decade redistricting campaign, said in a brief interview Tuesday that he saw Stefanik\u2019s anger as part of broader trend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that there’s a lot of frustration right now in the House with the effectiveness or lack thereof of this body in recent months,\u201d he said. \u201cThe House has \u2026 in some cases ceded its own authority, hasn’t taken the lead on a lot of important policy measures and has even taken steps now to limit the agency of individual members.\u201d<\/p>\n

For much of his two-year tenure, Johnson has been able to keep a handle on the infighting thanks to President Donald Trump\u2019s stranglehold on the Republican Party, with the president personally intervening at key points this year to settle internecine disputes.<\/p>\n

But many sense that is changing as the speaker suffers public setbacks \u2014 such as his recent failure to prevent passage of a bill mandating the release of Justice Department files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Things could fray further depending on how the GOP fares in Tuesday\u2019s special election in Tennessee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“That model only works if no one challenges him and gets away with it,” said one senior House Republican granted anonymity to speak frankly about conference dynamics. “And that’s not what’s happening now. \u2026 People are less willing to stay quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n

In particular, several high-profile GOP women have clashed with the speaker over various issues in recent months. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a> of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Lauren Boebert of Colorado were instrumental in pushing through the Epstein bill<\/a>. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna<\/a> of Florida filed her second discharge petition of the year Tuesday, seeking to force a vote on a bill banning member stock trading that the speaker has so far declined to advance. And several women in the House GOP raised concerns about leaders\u2019 handling of Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), who is facing multiple accusations regarding his conduct and ethics.<\/p>\n

Stefanik is in another category altogether. A year ago, she was the No. 4 House GOP leader before relinquishing her post in anticipation of her confirmation as ambassador to the United Nations. But Trump withdrew her nomination amid concerns about the thin GOP majority \u2014 a move for which Stefanik has privately faulted Johnson.<\/p>\n

Johnson granted her an unelected junior leadership role as a consolation prize, but she has decided her political future will not lie in the House, launching a campaign for New York governor<\/a> instead of seeking re-election. And now she appears to be all-in on a scorched earth campaign against the speaker.<\/p>\n

“Elise is running for governor and frankly does not give a fuck anymore about playing nice,” said a second House Republican granted anonymity to speak frankly about the dispute.<\/p>\n

The precipitating cause for Stefanik\u2019s public outburst, in her telling, was a leadership-level decision to exclude legislation requiring that Congress be informed of counterintelligence probes into candidates for federal offices from the annual defense policy bill \u2014 a must-pass measure to which lawmakers are keen to attach their personal priorities.<\/p>\n

After Stefanik posted her displeasure<\/a> to her X account, Johnson tried to tamp down the furor Tuesday. The speaker, who sometimes jokes he\u2019s more of a mental health counselor, told reporters he couldn\u2019t understand why Stefanik \u201cdidn\u2019t just call me\u201d and that the two could have handled the dispute in private.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust more lies from the Speaker,\u201d Stefanik retorted, again on X<\/a>, mocking Johnson\u2019s claims of ignorance. \u201cThis is his preferred tactic to tell Members when he gets caught torpedoing the Republican agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

House Republicans close to Stefanik argue there are more GOP members who are upset about the congressional notice provision falling out of the Pentagon bill. Notably, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan<\/a> (R-Ohio) said he had not yet thought about whether he would join Stefanik in withholding his support for the bill over its exclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want this protection in there,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cI think it makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just hours after Stefanik\u2019s comments, Johnson faced down a brief revolt over a procedural measure on the House floor led by hard-line Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and other incensed Republicans that would have derailed GOP leaders\u2019 floor plans for the week.<\/p>\n

As that crisis was still unfolding, Luna launched her discharge petition<\/a> to force a vote on a congressional stock trading ban \u2014 and Stefanik quickly announced she was signing on to the move undermining the speaker\u2019s authority.<\/p>\n

Members of Johnson\u2019s leadership circle and other senior Republicans were privately shocked by Stefanik\u2019s sharp public criticism of the speaker \u2014 and that she didn\u2019t later decide to delete them \u2014 according to three people granted anonymity to describe conversations that unfolded Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s staff have reached out to Stefanik\u2019s team and are seeking to resolve the spat privately, according to two other people with direct knowledge of the matter.<\/p>\n

The speaker\u2019s allies argue the disgruntled Republicans are just that \u2014 people with axes to grind against Johnson.<\/p>\n

But Stefanik is getting backup from other malcontents inside the House GOP, including Greene, who was once seen as being on the opposite pole of the Republican conference. Both women were kept in close consultation by the previous speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and have since fallen out with Johnson.<\/p>\n

After helping to engineer the successful Epstein files vote, Greene announced her imminent resignation<\/a> \u2014 itself a slap at Johnson, given the tight GOP majority \u2014 and publicly railed against the House\u2019s diminished power and Johnson\u2019s speakership. She weighed in again Tuesday after Stefanik aired her accusations about the Pentagon bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo surprises here,\u201d Greene said in her own X post<\/a>. \u201cAs usual from the Speaker, promises made promises broken. We all know it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even by the high standards of chaos for the 119th Congress, Speaker Mike Johnson being accused Tuesday by a member of his own leadership team of protecting the \u201cdeep state\u201d was a remarkable development. Rep. Elise Stefanik\u2019s rare move to publicly accuse the speaker of being a liar and then, in a separate provocation, signing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}