A GOP representative with some lofty goals appears to have a major issue with a GOP rep in a lofty position.
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik (who appears to have a virtual lock on the Republican ticket for the state’s governorship in 2026) called out the “deep state” for railroading her legislation in a recent X post — and some of that blame apparently falls on Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
To backtrack a bit, apart from the New York gubernatorial race, Stefanik’s other main focus has been to prevent another embarrassment like Operation Arctic Frost from ever afflicting the GOP again.
Arctic Frost was, effectively, a pressure campaign from former President Joe Biden’s Justice Department that sought to unearth all sorts of dirt on President Donald Trump and his GOP allies, primarily by spying on phones.
While Stefanik doesn’t appear to have been a direct victim of Arctic Frost, she clearly saw the issue with government officials effectively trying to weaponize “justice,” and she has been working to make sure it can’t happen again.
Part of those efforts involved introducing legislation that would “require Congressional disclosure when the FBI opens counterintelligence investigations into presidential and federal candidates seeking office.”
The only problem? Stefanik apparently isn’t getting much top-level GOP support on the matter — and she’s refusing to be quiet about it.
Here’s Stefanik on Monday:
🚨🚨🚨
Republicans have the House, Senate, and the White House, yet the deep state is alive and well with the Speaker getting rolled by House Dems attempting to block my provision to require Congressional disclosure when the FBI opens counterintelligence investigations into…
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) December 1, 2025
“Republicans have the House, Senate, and the White House, yet the deep state is alive and well with the Speaker 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,” Stefanik posted, with a clear allusion to Johnson.
Stefanik added this provision to the NDAA spending bill that U.S. lawmakers are currently reviewing.
She added: “My provision will strengthen this accountability and transparency to deter this illegal weaponization and it passed out of the House Intelligence Committee in this Congress and previous ones.
“Yet House Republicans continue to get rolled by the deep state due to opposition by Jamie Raskin. If Republicans can’t deliver accountability and legislative fixes to arguably the biggest illegal corruption and government weaponization issue of all time, then what are we even doing[?]
“This language is even more essential in light of the continued weaponization of the federal government evidenced by the sweeping Arctic Frost wiretapping scandal and the recent illegal leaks of Steve Witkoff’s conversations with foreign counterparts.”
Here’s Stefanik on Tuesday: “I just walked out of a briefing on this issue this morning CONFIRMING everything I posted yesterday.
“That yes, in fact, the Speaker 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.
“This is an easy one. This bill is DOA unless this provision gets added in as it was passed out of committee.”
Johnson, perhaps unsurprisingly, responded to Stefanik’s damning claim that he was working hand-in-hand with the “deep state.”
Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman shared Johnson’s retort on social media.
JOHNSON on Stefanik:
“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…. As soon as I heard this yesterday, I was campaigning in Tennessee, and I wrote… https://t.co/EfvRoarJ4o
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 2, 2025
“All of that is false,” Johnson said, according to Sherman. “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.
“As soon as I heard this yesterday, I was campaigning in Tennessee, and I wrote her and said, What are you talking about? This hasn’t even made it to my level.”
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