BURLINGTON, KY – Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie endorsed Donald Trump and avoids any personal attacks of the president, he told supporters in Boone County on Sept. 24.
But that doesn’t mean the eight-term congressman will back down from his campaign to force the Trump administration to release files about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In fact, he reported during his Massie for Congress Liberty Rally in Burlington, he secured the signatures he needs to force a U.S. House vote on the matter just this week.
“This Epstein thing has gone on long enough,” he said in his sixth campaign event of the day.
The effort could be derailed, however, if opposition ads cost him supporters. A political action committee called MAGA Kentucky began running anti-Massie ads this summer.
About 200 supporters packed a room in Boone County to hear from U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican who frequently disagrees with Trump policies.
200 supporters show at sixth stop of day
About 200 supporters gathered at a Boone County courthouse, dining on a barbecue buffet and listening to a three-teen country band as they awaited Massie’s arrival from his five earlier stops in Kentucky’s Fourth District.
Michael Faris, a first-time candidate running for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Sen. Mitch McConnell, said he agreed with Massie’s stand on the Epstein files. “He’s looking for accountability,” Faris said.
Cole Cuzick, a candidate for District 63 in the Kentucky House of Representatives, aligns with his one-time boss (he was a staff assistant for Massie) on most issues. Both oppose abortion and pro-transgender policies, and favor of Second Amendment gun rights. “He taught me a lot about leading with principles,” Cuzick said.
Barb Jacobson, a voter from Hebron, faulted the last administration for failing to release records of the deceased financier. “Biden had access to those files and he ignored them,” she said.
They joined about a half dozen other politicians and a wide variety of everyday voters packed into the room, cheering when Massie arrived with fellow Kentucky Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul.
U.S. Senate candidate Michael Faris is running to replace retiring Kentucky U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Massie says he never gets mad at Trump
In his 35 minutes on stage – as the eighth and last speaker after members of the Kentucky statehouse and Paul – Massie called Trump “the best president since I’ve been paying attention to presidents.”
“I never get mad at him,” Massie said. “I never criticize him.”
Imitating Trump’s voice and mannerisms, Massie even recounted their friendly phone conversation when he called Trump and read him his planned endorsement statement.
But Massie has drawn Trump’s ire by opposing some of the president’s decisions and policies. Those include the president’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” his decision to strike nuclear facilities in Iran and his back-pedaling on a promise to release the Epstein files. The files are said to include the names of clients to whom Epstein allegedly trafficked young girls.
By last week, on the Epstein effort, Massie had secured 217 of 218 signatures he needed for what’s called a discharge petition. That document will force the House to vote on a bill he is co-sponsoring to require the Department of Justice to “publicly disclose all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in its possession that relate to Epstein or [his associate Ghislaine] Maxwell.”
He won the final signature on Sept. 23 when Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat, won a House seat in Arizona to replace her late father. Grijalva and her opponent had both pledged to sign the petition, Massie said.
“I am now at 218,” he announced, prompting one of several standing ovations of the night.
The only three Republicans representatives to sign on, however, are facing pressure from the MAGA Kentucky ad campaign, Massie said. But he believes the three – Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina – will stick with him. “They are all strong,” he said.
If Thomas Massie loses his seat in Congress, it could spell the end of the Tea Party Movement, Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said a Massie rally.
Massie ‘most principled’ House rep, Paul says
Paul, for his part, dismissed efforts to end Massie’s tenure in Congress by running someone against him.
With the support of Northern Kentuckians he called “the real stalwarts of conservatism,” Paul said, “I can’t imagine they’d even try at this point.”
Like other speakers, Paul lauded Massie’s opposition to COVID shutdowns and his support of reduced regulation, small government and low taxes.
“There is no more principled member of the House of Representatives,” he said. “None.”
If Massie loses his seat, Paul said it would mean the end of the Tea Party, a conservative political movement propelled, in part, by his father, former Congressman Ron Paul.
“You have to do everything you can because the movement only survives if you send Thomas Massie back,” he said.
Kentucky statehouse candidate Cole Cuzick said he learned to lead with principles from Massie, his one-time boss.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Thomas Massie says he has signatures to force vote on Epstein files