MASSIEFLIX

Massie on CNN: Republicans Are in for a Shellacking

Sep 24, 2026 · 7:38 trumpepsteincnnhegseth

On CNN's The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Massie says Republicans on the November ballot are putting daylight between themselves and Trump, and that the president's comeuppance arrives on Election Day. He ties the USS Lincoln suicide report to the Hegseth articles, and says Epstein Files Transparency Act II is two Democrats short of a discharge petition.

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Chapters

  1. 0:00 Daylight between them and Trump
  2. 1:18 A shellacking in November
  3. 2:53 Xi and a mixed message
  4. 4:23 Hegseth and the Lincoln
  5. 6:17 Epstein files, part two

Transcript

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  1. Why do you think that you're seeing these Republican senators speak out now? Does that stand out to you? Yeah, well, first of all, I was out in
  2. front on this. I said that every ICE agent should have a body camera, and I told that to Kristi Noem in a hearing. I also said they should have judicial
  3. warrants to go into private homes. And these are two things that are still lacking in a lot of cases. They're
  4. trying to do administrative warrants. And obviously, those guys are right. You need to cooperate with law enforcement.
  5. But the bigger story here or question here, which is the one you just asked, is why are Republicans putting
  6. daylight between themselves and the president on this issue? Look, if you if you go to any conservative, and you say,
  7. "Rate Donald Trump on his performance." They're going to I would give him an F on the economy. I'd give him, uh,
  8. you know, an F on no new wars. But generally, Republicans say, "Well, we'll give him a B or at least a B minus on
  9. immigration and border security." But here you have Republicans putting daylight between themselves and the president on the issue where he hasn't
  10. lost his base yet. Even though the tactics here, in some cases, are not
  11. appropriate from the ICE agents. Why do you think that is? Why do you think they're they're putting that
  12. daylight between them? Yeah. Because they they have to find some way to get away from this
  13. president. He's not out there campaigning for them. They don't want him in their districts. They've got to
  14. put space between them and him. Um, and this is the price they're paying. Look, I was the Republican who was speaking
  15. out for so long, and they were all whatever Trump wants, they were all for it in their primaries. And now it's they're about to take a shellacking here
  16. in the general election. So, they're running from him on on this and other issues like the war.
  17. I mean, yeah, you are someone who knows what it's like to incur the president's wrath when you break with him.
  18. Um, the Republicans who are distancing themselves not just on ICE, but on the war when it comes to cost of diesel, on
  19. tariffs. We've seen a lot more of that lately than we've ever seen. What do you think the president's response to that is going to be? Do you think he'll understand tough elections
  20. are coming up or what do you say? No. If you look at his social
  21. media accounts just in the last few hours, he's unrepentant. He's in denial. Somebody in the White House needs to get
  22. through to him. I think his comeuppance will happen on election day and the day after I think there's going
  23. to be a reckoning and and what we need to see is what he does after the day after this election. Does
  24. he send a message like George Bush did firing his Secretary of Defense the day after the 2006 midterms where
  25. Republicans took a shellacking? We'll see if he does something like that and other measures to show that he got the
  26. message. You know, the president literally rolled out the red carpet for Xi Jinping during
  27. the state visit. He's, you know, been talking about how strong and fit he looks amid concerns about his health.
  28. What do you make of the president's warm welcome for Xi Jinping and the way that it has been compared with the ad that
  29. the White House is putting out now of the president saying, you know, America will never be a communist country. Do
  30. you think those messages jive with one another? I think it's a mixed message. Look,
  31. he'll invite a communist to the White House, but I can't even go there for the Christmas party. You know, his retribution tour among on
  32. Republicans, I think stands in stark contrast to the way he's treating, you know, the communist leader of China and
  33. also the mayor of New York. But, you know, that's just who he is. He's he's not an ideologue. He doesn't have a
  34. true north or or a honestly any kind of beliefs. He's just kind of going with
  35. the flow here. And um you know, China what's interesting about China, they're buying gold, they're not buying our
  36. Treasury notes. Now, I wonder if he had a conversation about that because he's always after the Fed and the Treasury to
  37. try to get interest rates down. But the reason interest rates are going up, at least the price we pay to borrow money
  38. is because foreign countries like China are saying we don't want any more of your debt. Yeah. And I sorry to say I don't think
  39. you're going to be getting invited to the White House Christmas party anytime soon, Congressman. Um but you know, in terms of what you're doing in your last
  40. several weeks and months on Capitol Hill, um obviously you led the charge on Jeffrey Epstein when it came to the
  41. discharge petition that initially was put out there and that you know, seemed like a long shot, but
  42. it ended up getting um a lot of support. You're now putting out uh something when it uh you're
  43. trying to another maybe what's seen as a long shot move when it comes to trying to impeach the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth. There's a new
  44. CNN report out about one of the aircraft carriers that was basically out at sea for much longer
  45. um than typically would be. And CNN has learned that the Navy Secretary told Congress eight sailors assigned to the
  46. USS Lincoln Strike Group attempted suicide. When you hear that report, what
  47. goes through your mind? Well, you know, I introduced articles of
  48. impeachment against Pete Hegseth. And they just did a poll on this, 51 to 34
  49. Americans support impeaching Pete Hegseth. I may add another article of impeachment when I return to Congress
  50. because they ran out the clock, they sent us home so they wouldn't have to vote on it. He's downplayed sort of the
  51. fatalities and the casualties, I believe, and underreported what's going on in Iran and also on that ship. And I
  52. think there needs to be accountability there. As you well know, they've kicked people out of the White House and now they've invited them back, but they're
  53. still a vacuum there at the Pentagon where they haven't brought in the the
  54. typical new sources who keep them honest here and also protect our soldiers by
  55. making sure that the these casualties get reported. Yeah, and obviously we heard from a lot
  56. of those sailors in terms of what it was like on that and it's just it's tough to hear. And I mentioned your your other effort
  57. on Capitol Hill with Jeffrey Epstein and now trying for a second discharge petition. Today we've learned that Jeffrey Epstein's long-time attorney and
  58. his accountant are both reportedly under federal investigation. Major questions on what that's going to
  59. look like. What went through your mind when you heard that news? Well, when I heard Richard Kahn's name,
  60. it brought me back to what I was doing last week when when Speaker Johnson sent us home early, I stayed another day and
  61. went over to the DOJ and looked at some more of the redacted files and I see Richard Kahn's name there referring to
  62. an instance where they interviewed him and I can't find the interview notes. And so there are more questions to be answered
  63. and there are more files to release and that's why we've done the Epstein files transparency act part two. By the way,
  64. Kaitlan, we got the number of Republicans we need and now we're just two Democrats short. With those two
  65. Democrats were out sick or for family reasons. As soon as we get back, that second discharge petition for this
  66. second bill that Ro Khanna and Teresa Leger Fernandez and I introduced, it's going to succeed and they'll have seven
  67. legislative days to deal with it after the midterms. That's one of the reasons I'm sitting here talking to you remotely
  68. and not in DC is because they sent us home to avoid this issue until after the midterms.

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