I first met Thomas Massie twelve years ago, at a food-freedom conference hosted by Joel Salatin at his farm in Virginia. Even then, as a newbie Congressman, Massie showed a sharp sense of humor, as I wrote then: “U.S. Congressman Thomas Massie, who made headlines earlier this year when he assembled a couple dozen co-sponsors for legislation to dilute the effects of the federal prohibition on interstate raw milk sales and shipments, was pessimistic about the chances of actually passing anything in the House of Representatives. Indeed, it isn’t even likely the legislation will get a hearing. ‘The dairy industry went apoplectic when we introduced the legislation,’ he said. ‘My wife said she didn’t know the lactose industry was so intolerant.’ “
He seemed over the years highly committed to adjusting federal laws to make raw dairy and meat more directly available from farms, until 2021, when he shocked many admirers by seemingly going off on a tangent of celebrating gun rights—he drove the point home with a Christmas card he posted on social media showing his entire family toting assault weapons.
But then, over the last year, he’s become resolute in leading the charge to get our government to fully release the voluminous files covering Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking crimes and in exposing Epstein’s seemingly endless connections to America’s elite–Republicans and Democrats alike. This presumably includes a desire for President Trump himself to come clean on his involvement with Epstein.
I thought when he first took up the Epstein cause that it was one that had a chance of rallying and uniting Americans. After all, it had been said by more than a few seemingly astute commentators that the one thing that could get Trump in trouble with his base would be credible evidence he was involved in sexually abusing under-age girls. Trump has been adamant in denying his own involvement in Epstein’s criminal activities. Massie’s effort to elicit a credible yes or no on this question thus seemed a worthwhile endeavor.
Whatever the voluminous evidence against Trump and others who associated with Epstein, none of it has yet been presented and decided on in a court of law or a congressional hearing, except for Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting for prostitution as part of a plea deal; he was being held in New York on sex trafficking charges when he committed suicide in a federal jail in 2019. But Massie apparently struck raw nerves with the president, because Trump made one of his top political priorities getting Massie voted out of the U.S. House by convincing a former U.S. Navy Seal to oppose Massie in Kentucky’s primary election on Tuesday. In other elections preceding this one, including one over the weekend to target Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, Trump has been remarkably successful in recruiting candidates to oppose Republican incumbents who have dared to challenge any pieces of his agenda or any aspects of his image. According to national press accounts, Massie’s Kentucky primary race has turned into the most expensive House race in the country, costing upwards of $40 million.
But then, autocratic leaders by their nature have very thin skins. A young Chinese comedian has literally been run out of the country recently for poking seemingly harmless fun at China’s supreme leader, Xi Jinping, as this NYTimes article chronicles.
Massie has clearly come a long way for a congressman pushing a few food rights issues. He has come to be seen as such a threat to the depravity of our political, financial, and educational elites that they will spend huge amounts to get him out of Congress. And while I personally disagree with much of the political agenda he has adopted over the years, I admire his courage in pursuing the Epstein matter. After all, it could end his political career.
David,
Saying that there is “no credible evidence on either side of the matter” just plays into Trumps Cover-Up. There are millions of pages of evidence in the DOJs hands that they refuse to deliver to the public. There is also hard-core evidence that has already been released. It has been reviewed by members of congress, and they are repulsed and disgusted.
THERE IS CREDIBLE EVIDENCE that Epstein, Trump and his billionaire friends abused under aged girls. Listen to the girls themselves that are now women!! The same girls that were denied a congressional hearing to review their direct evidence in the first person.
There is evidence that Trump started the Iran war because the Mossad ( Epstein worked for Isreal Spy agencies ) threatened exposing the Epstein videos of Trump doing unspeakable things to girls, unless Trump backed Isreal and their extreme Zionist agenda. Iran was not a threat to America until Trump started to kill Iranian girls in their schools. It is sick…. truly sick, and we Americans are all complicit.
I separate my humanitarian Jewish friends from anything Isreal and the Netanyahu extremist racist Zionism and genocidal treatment of the Lebanese and Palestinians.
I also see the so-called American University PhDs milk experts when interviewed about EU raw milk studies saying the same thing: “there is no evidence” of any benefits of raw milk consumption. A quick review of PUBMED will expose at least 50 studies on the benefits of raw milk and their unique BIOACTIVES.
Saying “there is no evidence” is a protective and biased statement. In the science world… it predicts the political agenda of the person that said it. Denialism is a scapegoat and an escape from facing the hard data and uncomfortable reality of the truth.
I say that “there is evidence” and no one has the guts to standup and say it out loud. I like Massey very much and he stands up and calls it like it is. He can come shooting anytime at the farm. I met him two years ago in his office in DC. Raw milk changed his life and he loves raw milk. He shared a very personal story about his gut and how raw milk transformed it.
Mark
Mark, when I say, “We still haven’t seen credible evidence on either side of this matter,” I am using journalism-speak for the reality that the evidence against Trump hasn’t been presented and decided on in a court of law or a congressional hearing. I should have just said this last sentence, for clarity. I’ll change it in the post, because leaving it the way I said it leaves me open to all the “what abouts” you list (for example, about the Mossad using evidence against Trump to convince him to launch the Iran war, which is speculation). The conspiracy theory stuff seems not to be what Massie is trying to do, but rather to get all the files released and then have serious congressional hearings about their legal implications (not just for Trump, but for all the elites who were partnered with Epstein)…..and then file criminal charges against the appropriate people who were in cahoots with Epstein.
Thank you, David. We freedom-minded, especially FOOD freedom-minded, Kentuckians are optimistic that Massie will once again prevail. It is sickening that a President would make ousting one of the few Constitutionalist Congressmen such a priority. Talk about election interference!
He and I drink milk from the same farmer. My one claim to fame, lol.
Massie doesn’t take money from foreign interests like AIPAC that have bought out many of our Congress. He doesn’t support giving out OUR money to foreign nations. Any foreign nations. He doesn’t support the US/Israeli war against Iran. That is what really has Trump’s knickers in a knot. Exposing the deep influence Israel has over not only Trump but the entire Congress and the billions of taxpayer dollars we continually give to them. Trump is backing a puppet who will vote exactly as told. This puppet had dropped out of the GOP during Trump 1.0 because he didn’t like what Trump was doing to the GOP. Now, he’s their guy. No doubt the Epstein files are still an issue in Trump’s mind but I suspect anything really incriminating has long been shredded and burned. The very rich, infuencial folks who traveled to pedo island made sure of that. Many suspect Epstein was a spy for Israel, creating a honeypot for blackmailing many powerful people. Could it be that they showed Trump what they had on him and then requested he assist in their current war against Iran?
This is called a Conspiracy theory
I think there are several conspiracy theories bunched together in Bob’s comment. His big one, though, is the Iran war, which “really has Trump’s knickers in a knot.” The only problem with that one is that the conquest of Iran was only fourth or fifth in Trump’s list of desired conquests. (Remember Canada, Greenland, Venezuela, Cuba, etc.?) How did the Israel lobby fit into those others? Of course, it didn’t. I’ll tell you how it all fits together, though: a desire to steal as many natural resources as possible (oil is the big one, followed by rare earths and related). Here is something I wrote about it a few weeks ago that explains: https://medium.com/the-geopolitical-economist/heres-why-germany-refuses-to-be-bullied-into-supporting-trump-s-america-%C3%BCber-alles-policies-7b7e8f6ec6b6?sk=cc3b46edf25bb51d1d7189df48f3b579