Posted originally on CTH on May 24, 2026 | Sundance

Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press to promote his character and principled superiority to all other congressional representatives, the professional political narcissist, Thomas Massie, pledges to create as much turmoil as possible in his final seven months. Video and Transcript Below:

{TRANSCRIPT} – KRISTEN WELKER: And joining me now is Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Congressman Massie, welcome back to Meet the Press.

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: Thanks, Kristen.

KRISTEN WELKER: Thank you so much for being here. I do wanna get to your race in just a moment, but I have to start with that developing news on Iran, President Trump posting on Saturday that an agreement with Iran has, quote, “largely been negotiated.” It’s unclear what exactly has been agreed to, whether any deal would directly address the issue of the nuclear program, which of course is at the center of the war with Iran. So far no final deal has been announced, but, Congressman, would you support a short-term deal with Iran?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: Well, I was the author of the first War Powers Resolution to get us out of Iran. My constituents are hurting. Gas is almost $5 a gallon. Diesel’s almost $6 a gallon. And the farmers here in Kentucky can’t afford the fertilizer to put on their fields, so heck yes, I would support it. We don’t know what the terms of it are, but if Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz are crashing out last night, I’d say it’s probably a pretty good deal.

KRISTEN WELKER: All right, well, let’s turn to the big news, the reason why you’re here. You did lose your bid for reelection this past Tuesday after serving seven terms in Congress. Why do you think you lost this race, Congressman?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: Well, listen. Since the day I got to Washington, D.C., I’ve been doing this job like I thought people wanted you to do it. I read the bills. I didn’t give my voting card to the speaker. I’ve never given it to a president. I don’t even give my voting card to the Freedom Caucus. I vote for people over party. And, you know, that means 10% of the time I vote against the party. I’ve exposed a lot of things in Washington, D.C., the cronyism. I would say — you know, and also bankrupting our country, whether it’s Republicans or Democrats. I point out how they’re bankrupting our country and how these are all fake fights. They love to divide us. I think the biggest crime I committed against the swamp, Kristen, was showing the American people that somebody on the right could join somebody on the left and get something done, which is releasing the Epstein files, that everybody knew needed to be done. That’s probably the only bill that’s passed Washington, D.C. in the last ten years that lobbyists haven’t written. It was written by me and Ro Khanna, and we used the pressure of the American people to cross the aisle and get things done. That’s when they decided I had to be taken out, that I was becoming effective, so they wanted to eliminate me. And by the way, they couldn’t buy my vote in 14 years, so they bought this seat. This was the most expensive race in congressional primary history. And at the end of this race, we were spending more per day, my side and the opposing side, we were spending more per day than most entire congressional races are spent for the entire cycle.

KRISTEN WELKER: Wow. It’s just extraordinary to put it into that context. You reference the Epstein files, the fact that you and Congressman Khanna, who I’ll be speaking to next, pushed to have those files released. You also broke with President Trump on other key issues, voting against the so-called Big Beautiful Bill. You’re opposed to the Iran war, as you just stated. Congressman Massie, was it all worth it?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: It was absolutely worth it for me. Now, I don’t think it’s going to be worth it for the party. Look, the left — some people on the left have Trump Derangement Syndrome. They call it TDS. But there’s a growing number of people on the right who have a form of TDS called Trump Disappointment Syndrome. And I think what’s going to happen to the party this fall is they’ve disenfranchised a large portion of that constituency that Trump assembled to get us in the White House, in the Senate majority and in the House majority. They’ve alienated MAHA by kowtowing to the pesticide manufacturers and the pharmaceutical manufacturers. They’ve alienated the fiscal hawks by running DOGE out of town. They’ve alienated the people who don’t want to fight another war for other countries. And so I’m worried that in November this is going to cost the party a lot. But for me, it was completely worth it, and I’ve got seven more months to keep going against the grain, which means voting for principles and for people over party.

KRISTEN WELKER: Let me ask you, big picture, because you have said that you vote with Republicans more than 90% of the time. You split when you think it better serves your constituents. One of your constituents told a local reporter this, quote: “I just got to the point where I couldn’t support him anymore. I saw Massie as almost what they would popularly call a RINO — Republican in name only.” What do you say to that voter and others of your constituents who might agree with him?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: Well, they spent at least $20 million, maybe $25 million against me. And what they did is they expanded the pool of voters. And there were a lot of misinformed, uninformed voters. In fact, my daughter, who lives outside of my congressional district, she heard somebody in the voting booth next to her trying to find my opponent’s name on the ballot because he didn’t even know I wasn’t his congressman. That’s how much they’ve bamboozled the people here in Kentucky. They used artificial intelligence to create a video, lifelike video, that showed me checking into a hotel room with AOC and Ilhan Omar and holding hands with them. It was actually very effective on the boomers. And — but here’s the thing, Kristen. That’s only going to work for a little bit longer. The boomers are going to, you know, leave this country to the Gen X, and the Gen Z, and the Gen Y, and the millennials. And those folks are the ones that I won overwhelmingly. That makes me really hopeful for this country. They don’t get fooled by artificial intelligence, and they check the news. They get news sources like from podcasts and other sources. So they won this race by fooling my voters and expanding the base of people who vote to the uninformed voters. But, look, I got 45% of the vote in spite of this tremendous headwind. That means 45% of the party still believe in the ideals that I believe in and have espoused in Washington, D.C.

KRISTEN WELKER: Let me ask you about something that you said in your speech on Tuesday night. You said, quote, “If the legislative branch always votes with the president, we do have a king.” Do you believe there is still room in the Republican Party for Republicans who vote independently?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: You know what? Even the Freedom Caucus has caved at this point. They used to — basically the Freedom Caucus was formed so that 30 or 40 Republicans would have safety in numbers. They have no safety in numbers now. They — the principal ones are running for statewide office. They’re getting out of Congress. I think they — there is room, though. You’ve just got to go up there and vote your conscience. And you know what? I’ve inspired a whole generation of state representatives and city councilmen who are running for office. They send me direct messages. They send me emails. They’ve been inspired. I do believe there’s room in the party. Maybe not in Washington right now. But the next wave that’s coming up, they’re going to vote for people over parties.

KRISTEN WELKER: Well, I want to ask you about some of the issues now, Congressman. As you know, this week we did see Republicans in Congress actually reject some of President Trump’s priorities, refusing to vote on funding for both his ballroom and that $1.8 billion so-called Anti-Weaponization Fund, some of the strongest opposition, quite frankly, that we have seen from members of Congress, Republicans, to President Trump to date. Do you think that the party is beginning to break with President Trump?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: Well, listen, they’re worried about their own political mortality. It’s true you can take out Republicans in primaries. But Republicans are going to be very vulnerable this fall. The ballroom, I mean, that is such an egregious waste of money. We were told that it would be funded with private money initially. I like to joke that Miriam Adelson spent so much money in my race, they have to ask for taxpayer money for the ballroom now. And it’s — I think it’s a slap in the face of Americans. The president was bragging on the Roman architecture when in fact we’re operating like a Roman empire. We’re overextended overseas with our foreign aid, with our foreign bases. We’re spending money that we don’t have, and the gasoline, and rent, and groceries are so high that people can’t afford it. I do think it’s dangerous to indulge in these things like a gold-plated ballroom in Washington, D.C. while Americans are suffering.

KRISTEN WELKER: Let me ask you a little bit more deeply about the Anti-Weaponization Fund. The president is asking for $1.8 billion to support people who he says have been unfairly treated under the previous administration. This would include January 6th rioters. Congressman, do you support taxpayer dollars going to those who attacked police at the Capitol and attacked the Capitol on January 6th?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: Well, if you’re going to create a fund, it has to be voted on by Congress. The president can’t do this by executive authority. Our founders would say, “No — no, you can’t do that.” Listen, though, people have been harmed on the left and the right. Their First Amendment, Second Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Fifth Amendment rights have been violated. And I do think that they should have some recourse. But the solution —

KRISTEN WELKER: But would you rule out giving money —

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: – isn’t to hand out money.

KRISTEN WELKER: – to those who attacked or assaulted police officers?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: The solution isn’t to hand out money. The solution is to change the laws of this country where if you have been harmed that you go before a court, and you hear both sides of this. And you could adjudicate those things about whether the person deserves the money or not. But that’s what’s so hard is it’s so hard to go against the federal government, whether you’re on the left or the right. We need to change the laws when they infringe on your First Amendment, for instance, or your freedom to travel, or freedom not to be vaccinated, that you put in laws where there’s liability for the people that forced that, whether it’s private or government.

KRISTEN WELKER: Congressman, we’re almost out of time, couple more here. I want to ask about the Epstein files. As you’ve noted, the Speech and Debate Clause actually protects you from being prosecuted for whatever you say on the floor of the House. You have named names in the Epstein files in the past. Can we expect you to name more names in the coming weeks and months?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: Yes. Todd Blanche is violating the law. There’s still millions of files they haven’t released. We know from talking to the victims’ lawyers that their own 302 forms haven’t been released. We know the files have been over-redacted. I have released at least three names of billionaires who are implicated in this. I don’t think it’s possible to get to convictions with Todd Blanche at the top and with the FBI director Kash Patel at the top, because they’ve effectively both perjured themselves by saying that there’s nobody else in the files. Even Melania doesn’t believe that. The first lady knows that Jeffrey Epstein didn’t act alone. And here’s the great thing, Kristen. Whether I’m in Congress or not, the Epstein Files Transparency Act is a law, and it goes on for years. So if we can’t get this attorney general and this FBI director to do the right thing, the next ones who take those seats are obligated by law to release the files that these individuals are not releasing now.

KRISTEN WELKER: Congressman, I want to ask about your political future. Some of your supporters were chanting, “president, president,” as you delivered your speech on Tuesday night. Are you considering a run for president in 2028?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: I will not rule out anything, and right now I’m not going to rule in anything. Look, I’ve spent the last five days on my farm with my grandkids, and my cattle and my peach trees, and it’s a pretty nice life. I don’t know if I want to screw that up again. I’ve been in Congress 14 years, fighting. Every hour that passes, I get decompressed a little bit more. It’s like coming up from the bottom of the ocean. And I’ll take some time and decide what’s next. But I think I will stay engaged in some way or shape. Maybe it’s from the outside. I’ve been exposing what’s going on in Washington, D.C. for years and I’ll keep doing it.

KRISTEN WELKER: Congressman, I hear you not ruling a potential run for president out. Would you run as a Republican?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: I won’t rule anything out. I won’t rule out a run for county commissioner. I used to be the county judge executive here. That was probably the best job I ever had in politics. I would encourage people watching this show to act locally and to run for local offices. We can make a difference. There’s 3,000 counties in this country. Run for one of those offices. We’ve got to change it at the grassroots first.

KRISTEN WELKER: All right, well, when you make your decision, hopefully you’ll come back and share it here. Congressman Massie, thank you very much for joining us this morning. We really appreciate it.

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: Thanks, Kristen.

KRISTEN WELKER: And when we come back, Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna joins me next.