Rep. Thomas Massie delivers a lengthy House floor speech taking aim at Speaker Mike Johnson over the decision to send lawmakers home early ahead of the midterm elections. Massie criticized the shortened legislative schedule and questioned why Congress was leaving Washington while major national issues remain unresolved. Massie also highlighted his impeachment resolution targeting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, alleging unauthorized military operations in Iran without congressional approval. He further criticized House leadership over efforts involving the Jeffrey Epstein Files Transparency Act and argued that Congress should address concerns over food and fuel costs. The speech comes as divisions within House Republicans become increasingly visible, raising questions about the legislative priorities and strategy of GOP leadership ahead of the elections.
#ThomasMassie #MikeJohnson #HouseRepublicans #Congress #USPolitics #MassieSpeech #ThomasMassieSpeech #MikeJohnsonCongress #HouseFloor #CongressionalRecess #MidtermElections #PeteHegseth #HegsethImpeachment #IranWar #WarPowersAct #EpsteinFiles #EpsteinFilesTransparencyAct #JeffreyEpsteinFiles #HouseGOP #RepublicanParty #CongressNews #PoliticalNews #BreakingNews #WashingtonDC #USCongress
~PR.460~ED.102~GR.508~HT.96~VG.HM~
#ThomasMassie #MikeJohnson #HouseRepublicans #Congress #USPolitics #MassieSpeech #ThomasMassieSpeech #MikeJohnsonCongress #HouseFloor #CongressionalRecess #MidtermElections #PeteHegseth #HegsethImpeachment #IranWar #WarPowersAct #EpsteinFiles #EpsteinFilesTransparencyAct #JeffreyEpsteinFiles #HouseGOP #RepublicanParty #CongressNews #PoliticalNews #BreakingNews #WashingtonDC #USCongress
~PR.460~ED.102~GR.508~HT.96~VG.HM~
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00When other people want to go home, I'm here to work.
00:04I'm here to get justice for the Epstein victims, the survivors.
00:08I am here to get the price of food and fuel down for our constituents.
00:17We've got solutions, we just refuse to pass them.
00:20So what happened a couple of weeks ago is I introduced the Epstein Files Transparency
00:27Act II discharge petition.
00:30And I predicted that the House would take days off the calendar in order to avoid a vote
00:37on this again.
00:39If you remember a year ago, we had the Epstein recess, I call it.
00:45My colleague Ro Khanna and I have been very successful in collecting names.
00:49We were just two signatures short of 218 on a discharge petition.
00:53And the leadership of this body recessed this body for weeks to avoid swearing in one member
01:01that would have been the 218th vote.
01:05I was here, I was ready to work to be a fully participating member of Congress.
01:13Well, the speakers saw otherwise, the leadership here saw otherwise, and they kept Congress shut
01:19down for weeks.
01:20We came back.
01:22I got that 218th signature.
01:25And the bill that Ro Khanna and I co-authored became law.
01:30Every member except for one member of this House voted for our legislation that they had
01:36criticized for months.
01:39If it was so bad, why did they all vote for it?
01:41That bill went to the Senate.
01:43It passed by unanimous consent.
01:45If you ask the senators, can you pass one of our House bills, what will they say?
01:49Well, we'll see if we can get it on the docket.
01:52That's going to take at least three days.
01:53We've got to get a 60-vote threshold to overcome the filibuster.
01:59And so, it's going to be a while.
02:02How long did it take them to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act?
02:05They passed it before it got there.
02:07It left this House, and on the walk between the House and the Senate, they made a unanimous
02:14consent to pass that bill as soon as it got there.
02:17And nobody objected.
02:19The President himself signed that bill.
02:22He had earlier said it would be a hostile act to even support that bill.
02:27And what came of it?
02:29Three million files released.
02:32Now, we've yet to see justice here in the United States, but we watched a British ambassador
02:38to the United States lose his job.
02:41He was sacked.
02:43We saw the Prince, the Prince of England, lose his title.
02:49We saw the former Prime Minister of Norway arrested, convicted.
02:55Maybe not convicted yet, but arrested.
02:57We saw the Minister of Culture in France receive the same fate.
03:03CEOs, presidents of universities resigned.
03:09Over a hoax?
03:10Somebody should have told him it was a hoax.
03:13Because that's what we were told, that it was a hoax.
03:17Folks, it wasn't a hoax.
03:18And there's still three million of those files that are being withheld at the Department of
03:24Justice.
03:24And the ones that have been released have been overly redacted in contravention of that
03:29law.
03:30So, what would a fully participating member of Congress do if he got a law enacted against
03:37the will of the President, against the will of the Speaker, against all odds, and then the
03:43chief law enforcement officer of the country will not follow the law?
03:46What would a fully participating member of Congress do?
03:49Well, I think he'd do what I did.
03:51I wrote, along with Ro Khanna and Teresa Ledger Fernandez.
03:55By the way, when did it become a dirty word to work across the aisle?
04:00When did that become forbidden?
04:03I thought that was supposed to be a good thing, to form coalitions.
04:07Oh, Massey, he, you know, he can't get anything done.
04:11He can't get people to agree with him.
04:15It was 427 to 1 was the vote on the Epstein files.
04:19Come on.
04:22I think that's a pretty big coalition.
04:25But it was more than just getting the files released.
04:28My colleague, Ro Khanna, and I held the biggest press conference that's ever occurred in Washington,
04:33D.C. in at least a decade, for as long as I've been here.
04:37Is that something a not fully participating member of Congress would do?
04:42I don't think so.
04:43Why did we do it?
04:45To give a voice to the survivors.
04:48We gave them a venue to speak to you, the people in power.
04:53The people who were hiding the files at the DOJ, at the FBI, at the U.S. Attorneys.
04:59For the first time ever, we gave them a voice.
05:02We gave them a platform.
05:04They were brave.
05:05They stepped up.
05:06They told their very tragic and sad stories.
05:11And they compelled the rest of this body to do the right thing after resisting for so
05:18long.
05:19So that gets us to where we are now on the Epstein files.
05:24Ro Khanna, Teresa Ledger Fernandez, and I wrote another bill.
05:28And what it does is simple.
05:30It says, Mr. Attorney General, if you refuse to prosecute the co-conspirators of Jeffrey
05:38Epstein, the rapists and the pedophiles, the ones who financed it, the ones who covered
05:44it up.
05:44If you refuse to do it at Epstein Island or in New York or Florida or in New Mexico, this
05:51bill is going to give the files to the state attorneys general in the various states so
05:59that they can prosecute these crimes.
06:01And I've talked to the Attorney General of New Mexico.
06:04Guess what?
06:05There are crimes that occurred at Zorro Ranch for which there is no statute of limitations.
06:10We can still bring these pedophiles to justice.
06:15He's ready to do it.
06:17But the Attorney General of this country will not cooperate with the Attorney General of
06:21that state.
06:22So the Epstein Files Transparency Act bill, number two, would make that happen, would allow
06:28for that to happen.
06:29It does something else that's important.
06:31The survivors need closure.
06:34This Attorney General will not share those files with the survivors.
06:38The files that were generated on their behalf.
06:42The brave ones.
06:43There are many.
06:44We call them survivors because some are no longer alive.
06:48I'm talking about the victims who are still alive, who survived the trauma and the shame,
06:56and were subjected to horrible things by these men.
07:01The brave women.
07:03We're giving them standing in court to get their own damn files that they can't get now.
07:12Some of them, it was so traumatic, can't even remember what they told the FBI at the time.
07:19That's important.
07:21We also give standing to members of this body.
07:23Who would not want to make the legislative branch just a little more capable of getting
07:31its laws carried out in the way that they were meant to be carried out?
07:34It gives members of Congress standing to go in front of a judge and test the executive
07:40branch's flawed legal reasoning for withholding three million files.
07:48And why do we want to do that?
07:50Because their reasoning is such a joke that in front of any judge for more than a minute,
07:58their arguments could not be sustained.
08:01Let me give you an example.
08:03The Epstein Files Transparency Act, the first version that this fully participating member
08:08of Congress ushered through this body and through the Senate and got the White House
08:13to sign it against their will.
08:16The first bill says that the DOJ has to give us and the public internal memos, documents
08:24and emails concerning decisions of whether to prosecute or not prosecute, whether to investigate
08:30or not investigate.
08:31That's at the heart of this issue.
08:33Why did our government fail us?
08:35Who was it at DOJ or FBI that decided to create two tiers of justice?
08:41We want to see those internal discussions.
08:43So what does the Attorney General argue now?
08:46Oh, I'm sorry.
08:48We are going to exert or exercise our deliberative process privilege.
08:54Well, here's the problem.
08:55That's a FOIA term of art, Freedom of Information Act term of art.
08:59It does not apply to a law that was passed by both chambers and signed by the president.
09:03And even if it did, the law itself pierces through the previous law.
09:10And that's what any judge in this country, if they looked at it on the facts, would agree
09:15to.
09:16New laws override the old laws.
09:20I'm not an attorney.
09:22But as a fully participating member of Congress, I do serve on the Judiciary Committee.
09:29And I know the simple concept that a new law overrides the old law.
09:33And the judges know that too.
09:35So that's why this next bill is so important.
09:37And that gets me to why we're going to take these.
09:41At first it was, we're just going to cancel two weeks off of the calendar.
09:46And then, and we know why that happened.
09:50We know why that happened.
09:51It's to keep the Epstein Files Transparency Act from getting the 218 votes on the discharge
09:58petition, ripening over seven days and passing before the election, thereby making the Senate
10:05be accountable in the weeks leading up to the election.
10:09Oh my gosh, we can't have that.
10:10We can't have senators called to task at the, while they're stumping and spreading their
10:16campaign promises.
10:18Oh no, we can't put them on the spot like that and ask them if they're going to vote
10:22for transparency and justice for the survivors.
10:26That's why they cut two weeks off the calendar.
10:28Isn't that ironic?
10:29I was called not a fully participating member of Congress.
10:33I'm the one who most wants to be here those two weeks.
10:37And they got canceled.
10:39And I said they would probably cancel them.
10:42And we were told, oh no, that's a ludicrous idea.
10:46Let me tell you how stupid Thomas Massey's comment is.
10:49Those were the words of the speaker.
10:5148 hours later, what did he do?
10:54Exactly what I predicted.
10:55He cut two weeks off of this calendar.
10:59So why did he just cut another day off the calendar?
11:04He had some more choice words for me because I predicted this as well.
11:08On Tuesday, as a fully participating member of Congress, I introduced eight articles of impeachment
11:19against Peter Brian Hegseth.
11:22Over there, they're leading a little fantasy.
11:24They call it the Department of War.
11:27You know, you can't rename things without Congress.
11:30Hell, you can't even rename a post office without us.
11:33You think you can rename the Department of Defense the Department of War?
11:36Give me a break.
11:37But enjoy your little fantasy.
11:39It's the Department of Defense.
11:43Here's what's, and let me tell you about the eight articles of impeachment.
11:47By the way, Speaker Johnson says I'm not a fully participating member of Congress.
11:52Well, it took a long time to write eight articles of impeachment.
11:57It didn't take much time to conceive them.
11:59If you're looking over at the administrative branch and trying to give an award for the person
12:03who's racked up the most illegal and unconstitutional act, there's one clear winner.
12:08It's Peter Brian Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, who has done that.
12:16So it was easy to conceive of these articles of impeachment, but it wasn't easy to write them.
12:20They are watertight.
12:23They are watertight.
12:24In the 24 hours that has transpired since I was right here at this podium for an hour
12:30and 20 minutes reading the articles of impeachment, what has happened is, have they attacked the
12:34language of these articles?
12:36If they said there's no legal basis for this, you can't possibly think these are valid articles
12:42of impeachment.
12:43No, nobody's attacked the substance and nobody has come to the rescue of the Secretary of Defense.
12:52I don't even see the online brigade of paid media grifters who typically rally for MAGA
12:59and the president while they're collecting their checks.
13:04I just don't see it happening.
13:07And that's interesting.
13:09And so what is the form of a privilege?
13:13When you introduce articles of impeachment as a privileged resolution, what happens?
13:19Well, the speaker has 48 hours to schedule a vote.
13:2348 hours would be tomorrow, would be that vote.
13:27Well, what happened?
13:29Well, we just found out not more than an hour ago that the leadership of this body, which
13:36is Republican.
13:37Ah, I'm having a hard time figuring this out too.
13:40Why?
13:40We are the majority.
13:42We may only be the majority for six more weeks.
13:45Why would we be canceling days when the country is burning, the inflation is rampant?
13:52There are things we could do here.
13:54Why would we cancel our own majority?
13:58I can't figure that out.
14:00But I did figure out why we canceled tomorrow.
14:03And that's what I'm explaining to you as a fully participating member of Congress.
14:10Tomorrow would be the vote on impeaching Secretary of Defense Peter Brian Hegseth.
14:18And it looks like that vote's not going to happen.
14:21It would be a real easy vote.
14:23It would probably be a vote to table to insulate the members of this body from any accountability.
14:28That would avoid you from having to debate the issue, any of the eight articles of impeachment.
14:35It would let you go home to your town halls and say, well, we didn't vote on the substance
14:39of the bill.
14:40I didn't really agree with Massey's thing or disagree with it.
14:43I just thought we should table it and it should go to a committee first.
14:46Maybe we'll refer it to a committee or a blue ribbon commission or a panel of experts because
14:51we're just mere congressmen.
14:52We're not equipped to stand here on the floor and debate without reading our speeches that were
14:59written by our staff.
15:01Would a fully participating or not fully participating member of Congress come down here and speak
15:07extemporaneously for an hour?
15:09I don't think that would be a, I think that's the indicator if somebody does that, they are
15:15participating.
15:16Maybe when you hear their speeches, they're sincere.
15:21I will not, but I encourage you to claim an hour yourself.
15:25Surely you could do the same thing.
15:26And I would love to hear what the gentleman has to say.
15:31You know, it used to be considered, I think it was against the rules at one time to read
15:37your speeches in this body.
15:39Why is that?
15:41Because it was considered insincere.
15:43If you didn't have the conviction of heart to come down here or the presence of mind,
15:48we've got a few senators that may not have the presence of mind, or we've got some that
15:53don't have the conviction of heart, but if you just always came down here and read your
15:57speeches, some of them are written by AI now.
16:00The staff better watch out.
16:02It was a good gig while you had it, writing the speech for your robot boss to come down
16:06here and burp burp burp, here is my speech.
16:10Well, now they've got a robot to replace you to feed your robot a speech.
16:16This is not a robot speech, folks.
16:18I am not a robot congressman, never have been.
16:21I am a, contrary to what the speaker said, a fully participating member of Congress.
16:27Let me talk about some of the things that I've done since I've been in Congress.
16:32In 2014, working with Jared Polis, again, here, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait, that's
16:37a dirty word, across the aisle.
16:39You shouldn't be working across the aisle, Congressman Massey.
16:42Don't do that.
16:43We've got to have a bunch of fake bills that go down party lines that we can use against
16:48the other party in this next election.
16:50We don't want anything, and whatever you do, don't co-sponsor some Democrats bill.
16:54You're just giving credence to the other side, to the other viewpoint.
Comments