(Rod Lamkey/AP photos)
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) blasted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in a social media tirade on Tuesday, accusing him of getting “rolled” by Democrats and turning against Republicans aligned with President Donald Trump.
It all started on Monday when Stefanik posted a screed on X, saying Johnson was “getting rolled by House Dems attempting to block my provision to require Congressional disclosure when the FBI opens counterintelligence investigations into presidential and federal candidates seeking office.”
The post came after apparent opposition to a Stefanik provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that would require the federal investigators to alert Congress when opening a counterintelligence probe into presidential and federal candidates seeking office, CNN reported.
Stefanik has been pushing the provision for the last few years in response to the FBI probe into the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and its alleged involvement with Russia.
On Tuesday, Stefanik doubled down, saying Johnson “is blocking my provision to root out the illegal weaponization that led to Crossfire Hurricane, Arctic Frost, and more. He is siding with Jamie Raskin against Trump Republicans to block this provision to protect the deep state.”
She added: “This is an easy one. This bill is DOA unless this provision gets added in as it was passed out of committee.”
Johnson pushed back on Stefanik’s claims, putting out a statement that, “All of that is false. I don’t exactly know why Elise won’t just call me. I texted her yesterday. She’s upset one of her provisions is not being made, I think, into the NDAA.”
Johnson added: “I wrote her and said, ‘What are you talking about?’ This hasn’t even made it to my level.”
Stefanik, who announced her New York gubernatorial bid last month, confirmed she’d received a text from Johnson, and countered: “Just more lies from the Speaker.”
“This is his preferred tactic to tell Members when he gets caught torpedoing the Republican agenda,” she went on. “It wasn’t on your radar? This is the ONLY provision in the bill to root out the deep state rot.”
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