Is Trump still running scared of the Epstein files?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is a Global Player original podcast. Thomas Massey, who's been in Congress for 14 years.
If the legislative branch always votes whichever way the wind is blowing, then we have mob rule.
Trump basically launched a personal vendetta, branding Massey a moron, a nutjob, a loser.
On one level, what this shows you
Who is Thomas Massie and what role did he play in the Epstein files release?
is that Trump still has a very firm grip on his party. But on the other hand, you are starting to see something emerge, which is no dissent, no guardrails, no voices. If you disagree with the president, you're out.
Today is the six-month anniversary of the Epstein-Files Transparency Act. We've taken out two dozen CEOs, an ambassador, a prince, a prime minister... a minister of culture. And that was just six months. I got seven months left in Congress.
That is Republican Congressman Thomas Massey, someone who has led the charge for the release and publication of the Jeffrey Epstein files. He has just lost a fight to retain his seat in Congress because he lost the support of Donald Trump.
He has been a troublemaker for Trump over the last year or so, and this is clearly how it ends. Does this mean that Trump has a grip on the party like never before, or does it mean he's still terrified of Epstein? Welcome to The News Agents.
The News Agents. It's Lewis. It's Maitlis. And as you heard there, Thomas Massey, who's been in Congress for 14 years, as Emily was saying, he has been, he's not been the only person, but he has been absolutely instrumental in those Epstein files being released, the false disclosure through the force of law from the Department of Justice, something that Donald Trump never wanted to happen. Well, he's paid the price. because what happened is that Trump basically launched a campaign, a personal vendetta, ever since that period, branding Massey a moron, a nutjob, a loser. He's dispatched his own top advisers to run a concerted political campaign against him. He even travelled to Kentucky himself for a rally, denouncing Massey as disloyal to the United States of America.
And, you know, we're not talking in Massey here as someone who is some kind of dyed in the wool liberal or anything like that. He is a deeply libertarian minded conservative. But this issue really gripped him. And as a result, he finds himself now he's lost the primary contest in Kentucky. for his seat and the reason this is interesting is he this was the epstein issue that is was something that was constantly posited by critics of trump and others as suggesting this would be the thing because it exercised so much of his base because so much of his base were obsessed with the idea there had been this huge conspiracy and it was bringing in all levels of the elite, that this would be the thing that broke Trump's hold over the MAGA base.
But as we see from this result and we've seen from a string of other results recently where other people who have gone against Trump, Republicans who have gone against Trump, lost his endorsement and have lost their primary contest, we can see it seems that despite Epstein, Trump's grip over the Republican Party and over MAGA is stronger than ever.
Yeah, let's tell you a little bit about Thomas Massey because he is, I guess, what you'd call an independent-minded Republican. He lives in an off-the-grid farm, a solar-panelled house. He lives in a village in Garrison, Kentucky, of about 500 people. And he has always won his re-election in sort of general election terms by around 60% of the vote. In other words... Kentucky is a deep red Republican part of the world, and he has been a popular figure there. He has won with ease there. So the fact that he's even been primaried tells you something instantly, which is not that he looked in danger of kind of losing his seat to a Democrat. That's really never going to happen in Kentucky. But the fact that he was being primaried tells you that he has angered Trump.
Now, how did this anger start? Well... It either started with the Epstein files some nine, ten months ago, but it has intensified in recent months because he was pretty outspoken with Trump over the war in Iran from its very first hours.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:25
2
Who is Thomas Massie and what role did he play in the Epstein files release?
0:25–6:36
3
What impact does Trump's endorsement have on Republican primaries?
6:36–10:58
4
How has Trump's grip on the Republican Party changed over time?
10:58–44:08
5
What are the implications of dissent within the Republican Party?
44:08–51:14