MASSIEFLIX

Massie Gaggle: Trump's Attacks, Morality Comments, and the Epstein Files

Sep 17, 2026 · 6:52 trumpepsteinpress-gagglewar-powersdoj

Press gaggle after the Hegseth/Epstein week: Massie on why Trump keeps attacking him, the special-master letter to the judge, Venezuela war powers, and the 302 forms DOJ still won't release.

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Chapters

  1. 0:00 Seventeen Republicans on healthcare
  2. 0:19 Special master for Epstein files
  3. 0:53 Why Trump keeps attacking
  4. 1:37 Venezuela war powers
  5. 2:35 Obamacare bailout forever
  6. 3:05 302 forms and draft indictments
  7. 4:18 Tariffs and Article I
  8. 5:21 Executive war powers

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  1. First of all, this I mean 17 Republicans uh you know voted with Democrats yesterday. Is this a sign for Speaker Johnson and that he really needs to
  2. address healthcare? >> I don't know. Maybe they wanted it to happen. Maybe this was a safety fuse sanctioned riot. I don't know. Can
  3. >> you tell us about why you sent that letter to a federal judge asking for a special master? >> We think it's the most polite and most expeditious way to uh get this resolved.
  4. And the thing we need resolved is we do not believe that uh the DOJ is following the letter of the law or the spirit of the law with the Epstein Files
  5. Transparency Act. And Pam Bondi and Todd Blanch have been um talking to this judge about the redactions and so we
  6. thought it was appropriate to ask Judge Inglemire to appoint the special master. >> Why do you think you're still getting attacked by President Trump on social media? I think he's attacking me to keep
  7. the rest of these guys in line. Uh he mentioned me several times in the retreat even though I wasn't there. And I think he's just trying to drive home to them that hey, if you don't stay in
  8. line, I'll give you the Massie treatment. >> Do you think that's why they didn't vote to override his veto? Um yeah, I mean I I do think there was
  9. some uh bully pulpit intimidation going on there that uh you know the the the veto override for the water project in
  10. Colorado got kind of close and I think if there hadn't been sort of this inherent threat that that one would have prevailed. >> How do you feel about the Venezuela war
  11. powers resolution? Um, I'm encouraged by the vote in the Senate. You know, they picked up steam over there. So, we'll see how we do here. When when we offered
  12. the War Powers Resolution in December, one of the objections was that um it was premature that there weren't boots on the ground and that we weren't really in
  13. Venezuela. Well, now we're clearly in Venezuela. We've attacked Venezuela. And so hopefully some of those people who objected on those grounds will vote yes
  14. for a war powers resolution this time. Do you think there's risk uh in the administration's insistence that Deli Rodriguez sever economic ties with China
  15. and Russia? Does that risk broadening any kind of conflict? >> We always have that risk. I I think there are a lot of uh details that
  16. haven't been resolved yet. I don't I don't really think the administration itself knows what it means to run Venezuela to control the oil there. What
  17. were your thoughts about the 17 Republicans basically voting with Democrats on this uh bill last night? >> Look, when I got here, we were supposed to repeal Obamacare and it was it was
  18. called the Affordable Care Act and here we are years, you know, 14 years later still bailing it out. Uh I think Republicans have given up on this
  19. promise to our electorate and I think that's wrong. I think I I I mean there are major reforms that need to happen. It's not just enough to fix insurance.
  20. >> What are you hoping to hear received from the DOJ moving forward as it relates to the Epstein files? >> That's a great question. It, you know, they've said, "Oh, we've got a million
  21. documents and which could be four million pages." What we want very specifically are just a few hundred pages and these are the 302 forms that
  22. the FBI fills out when they interview the victims and they interview witnesses. Uh, we also want draft indictments where they were going to
  23. indict a lot of people or bring a lot more counts against Jeffrey Epstein and then decided not to. They need to release those to us. Right now, they're
  24. claiming uh cover from these FOYA standards that say that you don't have to release internal deliberations when somebody does a Freedom of Information
  25. Act. The problem is our bill specifically anticipated that and said they have to release internal communications having to do with decisions about whether to prosecute or
  26. not prosecute. So we think they're clearly in violation of the law. And that's one of the big reasons we want the judge to appoint a special master to kind of oversee what's going on here
  27. with these redactions. It's not the volume of material they're giving us. It's the it's the it's the material they're not giving us that we're
  28. concerned about. We're expecting from the US Supreme Court a possible uh ruling on tariffs and Trump tariffs. Um just your thoughts on these tariffs and
  29. should the president be able to be able to use these tariffs? >> The problem is our founders anticipated that this branch of government, the legislative branch, would guard its
  30. authority and claim it when it was appropriate. And we're just not doing that. I mean, we're rolling over at every chance. And it was also clear that
  31. they put taxing authority within Congress. At the time it wasn't an income tax. Taxing authority was tariffs. That was how 90 plus% of the
  32. government was funded with excise taxes. And so we're we're so far astray from that. The president should not have
  33. unilateral authority to levy taxes on American people. And those are the people who are paying for this. Like I don't I think there's still a disconnect. People are excited. The
  34. government's getting more revenue. They don't realize that's coming from their pocket because these are US consumers who are paying that tax when those goods
  35. come into the country. >> The president in an interview with the New York Times said that the only thing that could constrain his power as commander-in-chief is his own morality.
  36. What do you think about that comment? >> Well, there is no limiting principle on the legal framework that they've applied to justify the invasion of Venezuela. I
  37. mean, and they're demonstrating that now. They're almost giddy to say that they could use the same legal framework to in invade Colombia or to take over
  38. Cuba or even Greenland. And uh it's very disturbing that any just any one person's morality is all that would
  39. separate us from taking over any country. That's a ridiculous principle. It's not a limiting principle. >> How many Republicans do you expect to
  40. join you on the war powers? I don't know. As I said before, I was encouraged that in the Senate they had five. Uh that's a good sign. Maybe
  41. you'll see representatives from the states where those senators voted, like Missouri for instance, uh vote here on ours. And and as I said
  42. before, one of the objections in December to our war powers resolution was that it was premature. Now it's no longer premature, obviously. And hopefully we'll pick up some of those
  43. votes, but but I don't know. People are afraid of the president. Republicans are afraid of the president. What do you make of him asking for a $1.5 trillion defense budget?
  44. >> That is completely ridiculous. That's $5,000 for every family. Additional government spending per

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