Sen. John Thune with House Speaker Mike Johnson on November 14, 2024

It’s not just the rank-and-file Republicans in Congress increasingly split over President Donald Trump’s multiple scandals. Now, according to an analysis from Politico, a new division is also emerging between House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

As the piece notes, Johnson and Thune have “have largely worked in lockstep since January” and “known for rising above whatever theatrics are embroiling their respective conferences.” This week, however, things “hit a rough patch,” driven largely by scandals in Trump’s orbit, both new and old.

On Tuesday, the House voted 427-1 to release a large number of files related to the federal investigation into child sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein. This came despite months of resistance from Trump, whom many suspect is implicated in the files, and Johnson.

Despite voted for the release along with most of his caucus, Johnson called on the Senate to add new provisions aimed at protecting victims and whistleblowers named in the files. Thune largely ignored that request, and the bill passed in the Senate without any of those provisions by unanimous consent.

“I am deeply disappointed in this outcome,” Johnson told MS Now reporters after the vote.

The speaker responded in kind, attacking a contentious measure added to the recent government funding bill by Thune. If enacted, it would have allowed senators to sue the government for damages if their phones were seized as part of Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election.

On Wednesday, the House voted unanimously to remove this provision from the funding bill, after Johnson called it a “bad look.”