Massie v. Trump! | Congressman Thomas Massie

Transcript:

Rebecca Weber: Congressman Thomas Massie is no stranger to standing firm in his convictions, even when it means standing alone. He’s built a reputation in Washington for being principled, consistent and unafraid to push back when something doesn’t align with the constitution or the promises made to the American people.

Few people in Congress. Bring this kind of clarity and conviction that Congressman Massie does, and we are so glad to have him with us today for this important conversation. Congressman, thank you for joining me today. It’s great to have you back.

Congressman Thomas Massie: Great to be on your show again.

Rebecca Weber: Congressman, this is a question that, has come from, various AMAC members.

They say in 2023, you voted for the continuing resolution under Biden’s presidency, but you did not support the latest CR under President Trump. They’re curious, what changed? What specifically in this cr made it a deal breaker for you?

Congressman Thomas Massie: Yeah. It turns out I’ve never voted for a CR that became law, so I didn’t vote for a CR in 2023.

I think what they’re talking about maybe is the debt limit increase, which I did vote. Allow to go through the rules committee in exchange for securing a 1% cut in spending if we did another cr. And I got that written into law that there would be a 1% cut if we kept doing these crs. Now the problem is.

Mike Johnson this year says, this is a, it says it’s a cr, but he says it’s not a CR for the purposes of the 1% sequester that I got written into law as a condition of voting for the debt limit increase. He says, because it goes all the way to September 30th, it counts as an omnibus bill, not a cr. And so he is, they don’t have to cut the budget 1%.

So it’s a good question. People thought that I voted for a cr I did not, didn’t do it. I never have. I. And the problem with this CR is it extends the Biden level spending. It’s basically Biden’s budget extended nine months into Trump’s presidency, which I think is a really bad idea. I don’t think my colleagues are gonna have the spine to fight on September 30th when this latest Biden budget that Republicans extended runs out.

Rebecca Weber: sir, you’ve been so principled in your approach to government spending and overreach, and I love the, the pin that you wear that shows what’s happening, our national debt just consistently going. I’ve actually got it on

Congressman Thomas Massie: right now. Yeah. Although, that is, it’s a little hard to read, I think there.

Yeah. But my colleagues, that is

Rebecca Weber: just terrific.

Congressman Thomas Massie: My colleagues can see it and they have to read it every time I go into vote or go into a committee.

Rebecca Weber: and the American people, they see it, at least people who are paying attention. this is serious stuff. and we understand that, I.

Is oftentimes when you approach government spending government overreach, it sometimes does come with political costs. We saw how President Trump publicly called for a primary challenge against you. how do you respond to this kind of criticism? Do you believe that kind of feuding serves or harms the America first movement?

Congressman Thomas Massie: I think, if one person is standing here presenting a viewpoint that 50% of America holds, that’s probably a good thing. I had to hold up a, a lot of America’s viewpoints here. It gives people hope. If there’s one person who says, you know what? Just because Republicans are in charge, that doesn’t mean that deficits in the debt doesn’t matter anymore.

So that’s what I would say now. To the point of feuding or fighting, they kn you know, the president in his cabinet or anybody that of the advisors who advised him to attack me, last week, they knew I wasn’t gonna change my vote. That attack wasn’t about me. That w attack was to keep the weaker members of Congress from insisting that, we pass the cr that cut spending instead of, passing a bill that, extended the Biden era spending levels.

1. So it was about scaring other congressmen by whacking me, didn’t work on me, but it turns out I, people sent me $370,000. There were over 4,000 donors who, without a phone call or an email, they were just responding to three different tweets, sent me, $370,000 so that I could stay here and be an independent voice.

Rebecca Weber: Very interesting. Wow. Congressman, you have really pledged to be a force multiplier for the Doge initiative, and I tell you, AMAC members are really behind the Department of government efficiency, which promises to tackle government waste with the same rigor, That you’re applying Yes.

To challenging spending bills and bureaucratic overreach. so with your background in engineering and your track record of really voting against. Bloated budgets, what specific inefficiencies do you plan to target within the federal government and how do you ensure that DO’S cuts don’t just shift costs elsewhere, but actually shrink the system for good?

Congressman Thomas Massie: yeah, I wanna make sure do’s cuts actually take effect. The courts, are trying to get in the way of Doge and Trump’s agenda. And, so I think what we need to do here in the house is follow this process called Rescissions, where you rescind spending. So even though the CR we just passed that I didn’t vote for funds, all of the doge cuts that undoes all the doge cuts, there’s an opportunity for US opportunity here in Congress and it’s using the rescission process to make those doge cuts in law.

And it only requires 51 votes in the Senate. And so that’s what we’re going to, I hope that’s what we’re gonna try to do. we pa, we’re famous for renaming post offices here every week in Congress. I think we should, if we’re gonna rename a p for every post office we rename, we should put a Rescissions bill on the floor and rescind some of that wasteful spending that Doge has identified.

And if we do it that way, the courts can’t get in the way of Trump’s agenda.

Rebecca Weber: Very interesting. what a, smart way to go about it. now you’re chairing the subcommittee on the administrative state regulatory reform, antitrust, critical areas, in Trump’s second term agenda.

Do you see your committee’s work aligning with his vision, or do you think that there could be some. Friction between maybe your approach and the direction that the Trump administration is taking?

Congressman Thomas Massie: I think the Trump administration has got the, probably got the right take on antitrust. although, we’ll see.

We’ll see what happens there. It really comes down to who’s on the commission. the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, they, will make executive decisions and they are appointed by the president, and we’ll see what they do, but I think they’re gonna come down in favor of the free market.

Now, the broader work of the Judiciary Committee that I serve on is gonna be important for reinforcing. Trump’s agenda. So for instance, if there’s something that needs to be changed with respect to the jurisdiction or the authority of these judges that are getting in the way of Trump, then we could do that in our judiciary committee.

Of course, it would have to pass the House and the Senate. Also, we’re passing some Pro Second Amendment legislation in the judiciary committee that I think aligns up very well with Trump’s agenda.

Rebecca Weber: Second Amendment so important to our AMAC members. Can you elaborate a little bit more there?

Congressman Thomas Massie: Yeah, absolutely.

there’s a lot of bad things that are happening there at, were happening under the Biden administration at the A TF and with respect to FBI and DOJ and guns, and we need to reverse some of that. For instance, just yesterday we passed out of my judiciary committee, one of my bills. That will require the FBI and the Department of Justice to report statistics from the Nicks background check system because what, I believe is true and what I’ve found out through, the, small glimpses into this data that I’ve had through people that work at the DOJ, is that the Nick’s background check system.

wrongly denies over a hundred thousand people a year of the right to purchase a firearm. And how do I know it’s a wrong denial? Because a lot of those eventually get overturned, and even the ones that don’t get overturned don’t result in prosecutions. So we know there’s inaccuracies in the next database.

Yesterday I got a bill passed that requires them to report on statistics, on denial statistics. And I got the Democrats to, join me in that vote because what we’ve found out is that these denials happen more frequently to blacks and Hispanics than to whites because they share similar names to people in their racial and ethnic, groups who have been convicted of a disqualifying crime.

For owning a firearm, and they, get wrongly associated with somebody in their group, their racial group. Because they have similar names within their racial groups. So this is an example of how having a sloppy background check system hasn’t just hurt Americans and their right to keep and bear arms.

It’s disproportionately affected minority. So I was able to get Democrats to actually vote for that bill in the judiciary committee, which means there’s a good chance it could pass the Senate and we’ll learn a lot about how inaccurate the next database is.

Rebecca Weber: I just love that you’re fighting for all Americans and the Second Amendment just so important.

one of the most fundamental rights and, we’ve gotta have, keep that right or right to bear arms, very important to AMAC members. So we thank you for taking that initiative and, you’ve taken on a, very bold stand on other issues of, constitutional integrity. Often voting alone, right?

Or just with a few colleagues. with, Trump’s historic 2024 win and, a clear mandate from the people for change, how do you see your role evolving in this new chapter? do you see yourself as a, as an ally or a check on that executive power?

Congressman Thomas Massie: as both, frankly, Congress was never meant to be a rubber stamp for the executive branch.

We, we do, we have three branches of government and it’s our role to make the laws. And if there’s a law that’s unjust or needs to be changed, we’re the ones who should do it. And by the way, this would help make Trump’s agenda permanent instead of temporary. If you do something by executive order, the next executive can undo it.

So you get four great years. That is, if the courts don’t undo it before then you, get four maybe less years of an executive order and, influencing the agenda. But if you pass it through Congress, if you make permanent these changes, if you put them into law, it’s a lot harder to undo it when the administration changes.

I’ll give you another example where we need to, we, need to be vigilant and that is to make sure that we don’t get involved in another war overseas. Trump is accurately, doing the right thing in Ukraine. This is America first says basically that we’re not gonna be fighting other people’s wars.

1. Well, when we get out of Ukraine, and I’m confident Trump will help do that. Congress will have to defund that as well, that effort. I wanna make sure we don’t get into another war. And if we do, if it’s necessary to, for America, for our own wellbeing and safety, to get into another war, that has to be through an act of Congress.

The Constitution is clear on this. The president cannot wage a protracted long war without an act of Congress or any war for that matter. And I’ll be vigilant on that point. And I believe advancing the America first agenda, yes. So there you have it.

Rebecca Weber: So important. Yeah. And you’re doing that. Great.

before we let you run, just wanna touch on what’s happening. We know that there are hearings involving, PBS, NPR. These are these, federally funded, stations. These, broadcast stations that are, it seems, really pushing out. This narrative that aligns, with the left’s ideology. how important is it do you think that the government, really check to ensure that people are receiving information, that is unbiased or at least showing both sides, both points of view?

Because, when you speak about the war and Ukraine and we know what’s happening in Israel with Hamas and so on, I think a lot of people do get misinformation, and. We know that there’s a lot of fake news out there, right? So how do you see this, impacting, yeah, free speech in America.

Congressman Thomas Massie: And that’s a great point. it’s not the government’s role here to go to PBS and say, you need to run some conservative shows, or you need a more unbiased, viewpoint. We shouldn’t be funding PBS at all. And of course, yeah, of course something that’s funded by the government is eventually gonna be populated with liberals and the bias will sink in.

here in Washington, DC I think, 96% of the people in Washington DC donate to Hillary Clinton. That’s because they’re mostly government workers and you have that same positive feedback loop with PBS and other things like honestly, voice of America or Radio Free Europe. These are, billion dollar programs that we run overseas to, and the relics of the Cold War, we should be canceling those as well.

but that’s the only way you do it. You don’t get in there and say, oh, we need more. We need some committee in Washington DC to convene a, a blue ribbon panel to see how biased PBS is, and then to inject, some counterbalance in it. No, get rid of the funding. Let, the first Amendment take care of this issue and, also make sure that, the government doesn’t have its hand on the algorithms, at social media companies like they did under the Biden administration.

They should be free of government influence because, the government can, violate your First Amendment directly. by arresting you for saying something, but they can also violate your first amendment by going in and telling a, private company to violate your right, your first amendment.

That’s still violation by proxy. And so we need to make sure that the Constitution is defended. There are no glue polls, when you’re violating the constitution.

Rebecca Weber: Congressman, that’s what we just love about you. You are always looking to ensure that, America is paying attention to that very important constitution and we, we just applaud you for that work.

Thank you so much for being with us and. Really for being a driving force behind the Department of Government efficiency and helping us cut waste defending individual rights. We appreciate that you’re not shy about, challenging the status quo.

Congressman Thomas Massie: I’m not shy at all. I’ve never been accused of that. I’ve been accused of a lot of things here in Washington DC but I appreciate you getting the truth out there with this program.

I think it’s important to have independent reporting like yours.

Rebecca Weber: thank you again, sir, and to all you AMAC members out there. Thank you so much for tuning in. Don’t forget to subscribe, share, join us the next time that we keep digging into the issues that really matter to you. Until then, keep pushing for a government that works for us, not against us.

I’m Rebecca Weber. God bless you all.