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Published On: Tue, May 26th, 2026

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie: Outside Spending “Bamboozled” Kentucky’s “Boomers,” Young People Saw Right Through It

Rep. Thomas Massie told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that his “biggest crime,” which drove a massive effort to unseat him, resulting in him losing his primary this week, was his participation in a bipartisan effort to release the “Epstein files.” The Kentucky Republican said AI-generated ads and outside spending “bamboozled” low-information voters, particularly “boomers” — older voters — and helped defeat him in what became the “most expensive House primary” ever. Massie said he’s hopeful that the level of support he got from younger voters shows the party’s future is moving in his direction. “They’ve bamboozled the people here in Kentucky,” he said. “They used artificial intelligence to create a lifelike video, that showed me checking into a hotel room with AOC and Ilhan Omar, holding hands with them.” “It was actually very effective on the boomers!” he said. “But 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.” “They won this race by fooling my voters and expanding the base of people who vote to the uninformed voters,” he said. “I think the biggest crime I committed against the swamp 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.” This appears to be the ad he referenced, which does say “this satirical ad was created with artificial intelligence” in small print for the first five or seven seconds:

KRISTEN WELKER: 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? REPRESENTATIVE 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 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, 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? REPRESENTATIVE 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, 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? REPRESENTATIVE 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. 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? REPRESENTATIVE THOMAS MASSIE: You know what? Even the Freedom Caucus has caved at this point. Basically the Freedom Caucus was formed so that 30 or 40 Republicans would have safety in numbers. They have no safety in numbers now. The principal ones are running for statewide office. They’re getting out of Congress. I think 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.

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