Report: GOP Rep. Massie broke Trump truce
The Kentucky Republican has been the frequent target of Trump tirades on Truth Social after voting against every major policy priority of the president. He is also the victim of TV attack ads from MAGA Kentucky, a Trump-aligned Super PAC focused on ousting the congressman. The 79-year-old president lashed out at Massie for voting against the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill,' earlier this summer and swore to find another Republican to take his place in Congress. Trump has labeled Massie as a 'grandstander,' a 'loser' and other names.
'Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky is not MAGA, even though he likes to say he is. Actually, MAGA doesn't want him, doesn't know him, and doesn't respect him,' Trump wrote in late June. 'He is a negative force who almost always votes 'NO,' no matter how good something may be. He's a simple-minded 'grandstander.'' So to avoid the repeated barrages Massie approached GOP leadership on July 3 and asked for them to appeal to Trump on his behalf, multiple sources told the outlet. The speaker later spoke with the president and both sides agreed to stop the attack ads, a source revealed to Axios. Massie even seemed to play ball by helping his party that day advance a vote he'd typically not support.
But after a leaked memo by the DOJ and FBI on July 6 sparked backlash for claiming the disgraced [sexual] offender Jeffrey Epstein did not have a 'client list' as many on the right have speculated, Massie began questioning their narrative. 'Was Jeffrey Epstein an asset of a government intelligence agency?' Massie posted on X on July 8. In his bold critiques of the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files after the deal with Johnson, Massie began questioning who Epstein worked for. Soon after he apparently violated the agreement with Trump and GOP leaders by raising alarm about the files.
By July 14 Trump's attack ads resumed, and a $800,000 TV commercial campaign hit airwaves in Kentucky slamming Massie. 'We all deserve to know what's in the Epstein files, who's implicated, and how deep this corruption goes. Americans were promised justice and transparency,' Massie posted on X a day later on July 15. He posted a bill that he drafted to force the Trump DOJ and FBI to release a stunning array of Epstein-related documents. His measure would force the Trump administration to post the Epstein files online in 30 days.
'We're introducing a discharge petition to force a vote in the US House of Representatives on releasing the complete files,' the post continued. Soon multiple Republicans signed on to the Epstein petition, and it will likely get a vote when Congress returns from recess in September. Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of Congress have signaled they would vote for the measure.
In addition to Trump, Massie has lashed out at the speaker. '@SpeakerJohnson, why are you running cover for an underage [sexual] trafficking ring and pretending this is a partisan issue? MAGA voted for this,' the Kentucky lawmaker wrote last week on X. Despite this, Johnson has defended Massie to the press and has noted how leadership always intends to back incumbents, no matter the threat from the president. The speaker has also called Massie's discharge petition 'reckless.' If the bill gets 218 signers, it should get a vote on the floor. Senators have expressed interest in releasing the files as well.
'I filed the discharge petition for one reason, and that's to deliver justice and transparency for the American people,' Massie told the Daily Mail in a statement. 'Speaker Johnson wants to sweep the Epstein files under the rug, but in doing so he will create voter disillusionment that will cost us the majority.' Serving since 2012 and representing the northern part of Kentucky and the neighborhood south of Cincinnati, Ohio , Massie has positioned himself as a deficit hawk keen on cutting federal spending.
Massie regularly wears a lapel pin with the national debt ticking up and has consistently voted against spending measures, even those pushed by Republicans, for years, and did so again in July when he voted against the OBBB. The Republican rebel has been garnering a lot of publicity with his Epstein claims. 'This was a campaign promise that the president made, and it's a promise that his administration has made, his vice president has made, his son has made. And it's a promise that's not been kept,' Massie told Kentucky Public Radio in mid-July.
'If it's a hoax, I would say [Epstein accomplice Ghislaine] Maxwell needs to be pardoned,' Massie said, using Trump's description. 'And if it's a hoax, the vice president fell for it, Trump's own children fell for it, the deputy director of the FBI fell for it, the FBI director fell for it, and the AG fell for it. I suspect it's not a hoax.'
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