There’s nobody quite like Republican Congressman Thomas Massie. His no-nonsense libertarian flair has made him a Kentucky fan favorite since 2012 where he’s racked up landslides past 80 percent at the polls. He may be Mr. Popular at home, but in DC he’s dubbed Mr. No. And his contrarian ways have put him in President Trump’s crosshairs. Today, he’s holding nothing back—calling out his overspending colleagues and the corrupting ways of the swamp.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

Rep. Thomas Massie: I think the uniparty here is on the same path they were on before President Trump was elected.

Republican Thomas Massie frequently says the quiet part out loud.

Massie (May 1, 2024): It is because Mike Johnson was doing Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden’s bidding.

Even when it’s talking out of school about fellow Republicans, their House leader Mike Johnson, the Trump agenda, and The Swamp.

Massie: That’s the real untold story here. And I think we may be on a collision course, like I think there’s three cars coming together at an intersection and they don’t realize they’re gonna hit. And one of them is Congress with Mike Johnson driving, is in one of these cars. Trump obviously is one of these cars. Maybe he’s the train. And then there’s another car, which is DOGE. And I don’t think Elon Musk is gonna suffer these fools once he finds out how foolish they are or duplicitous they are. You don’t land rockets backwards, you don’t get cars to drive themselves on the interstate, by ignoring the fools that you’re working with.

Sharyl: What fools are you referring to?

Massie: Mike Johnson.

Sharyl: Because?

Massie: He’s the leader of the fools. I mean we can just— anybody following him now as a fool as well.

Sharyl: Because?

Massie: Because.

Sharyl: The spending primarily? Or?

Massie: It’s a suicide pact to, to suspend us into oblivion.

A fiscal hawk and MIT-educated engineer, Massie’s record in Congress is a highlight reel of lone dissent. He even wears his obsession on his sleeve, actually his lapel, sporting a mini-debt clock he designed, ticking up the nation’s $36 trillion tab in real time.

In 2020, he infuriated both parties by forcing lawmakers back to D.C. for an in person vote by name on a $2.2 trillion Covid relief bill he saw as fiscally reckless.

Massie (March 27, 2020): Mr. Speaker I came here to make sure our republic doesn’t die by unanimous consent and empty chamber and I request a recorded vote.

In 2022, he was the only House member to reject a resolution against antisemitism. He argued it threatened free speech. He’s continued taking solo stances this year.

Massie: Well, I’ve stood alone three times so far in three months. I was the only dissenting Republican on making Mike Johnson the speaker. I was the only dissenting Republican on our budget. And I was the lone dissenting Republican on the continuing resolution, which is a cut copy paste of Biden’s last 15 months in office, which is going to do the same thing for the first nine months of Trump’s administration.

He calls colleagues two-faced on Trump’s government-shrinking agenda— like plans to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development or USAID.

Massie: There are Republicans, for instance, that want that USAID money. I mean there was a surreal moment for me at the State of the Union when Trump talked about cutting all these DOGE things that they had discovered. And my colleagues all stood up and cheered. And I’m like, ‘You are the ones who funded all of this’. Like DOGE is cutting the things that you all did and now you’re applauding. And Elon Musk is at odds with a lot of those Republicans who stood up and clapped. But they’re playing along with it right now, and they’re gonna do sort of a, I would call it Rope a Dope maybe to use a Kentucky boxer analogy here. They’re just letting Elon wear himself out.

Massie is also a standout for rejecting what he sees as the corrupting cash grab in Congress. Both parties push members to hit fundraising quotas in order to get rewarded with prime spots on committees. Then they use those roles to rake in donations from the very industries they oversee—blurring ethical lines.

Sharyl: Wait, you’re describing a relationship where you have to raise money for yourself or for the party..

Massie: For the party

Sharyl: to get a good position on a committee?

Massie: To get a good committee. This is why I’ll never be on what’s called an ‘A’ committee. Those committees are like Financial Services, Ways and Means, and Energy and Commerce. Energy and Commerce by the way, regulates the pharmaceutical companies.

Sharyl: Because then when you’re on the important committee, you’ll do the lobbyists’ bidding or whatever they prefer, theoretically?

Massie: Yeah, if you find that somebody is on a committee that oversees the pharmaceutical companies, you’re gonna see— that’s who the pharmaceutical companies donate to. But you’re told before you get on the committee, “Don’t even ask for one of these ‘A’ committees unless you’re ready to do the hard work ‘across the street’.” ’Across the street’ means you can’t call up and ask for money here in this building we’re in right now, you have to walk across the street to the NRCC and make those phone calls. So they’ll tell you ‘unless you’re ready to do the hard work across the street, don’t ask for one of these committees.’

Sharyl: I hear they have like a board up that tells how much, who’s raised how much and what they’re supposed to raise?

Massie: It’s the Wall of Shame. So there’s a board that shows what your quota is based on your committee assignment. So if you’re on a lesser committee, you may only have to raise $300,000 every election cycle. But if you’re wanna win these bigger committees, it’s more like a million dollars or half a million dollars you need to raise and give to the party to stay in their good graces. If you look on the wall of shame, I’m at zero.

Sharyl: No ‘Dialing for Dollars’ for you?

Massie: I haven’t done it. I’ve not done it. I do, by the way, I do help the party. I do give money to candidates who are running in close elections, who have what I believe are sound principles. So I will help them in that way. I’ll go to the fundraisers and help ’em raise money, but I just don’t agree with the sort of extortion that goes on with these committee assignments

Massie’s relationship with Trump is a Capitol Hill soap opera. In 2020, Trump branded him a ‘third rate grandstander’ and tried to oust him over forcing the in-person Covid vote, but later endorsed Massie for re-election. Massie endorsed Ron DeSantis in 2024 then switched to Trump.

Massie: I’ve had three conversations or interactions with the president in the last nine months. One: He called and left condolences for my loss of my wife, which was very kind. I think it’s part of the president a lot of people don’t see. He didn’t need to do that. It didn’t gain him anything politically. But he took time out of his day to call me and offer his condolences. And then I talked to him about two weeks before the election about endorsing him, which I ultimately did that same day. And I initiated that phone call and he took my call on the second ring. And then I talked to him two weeks after the election, roughly about cabinet secretaries. There was discussion and, RFK Jr was a big fan of this, and the people that are supporting him was, hoped to see me be Ag secretary. And I would’ve done it, it’s not my life ambition, I think I could do a good job of it, but I spoke to Trump about that as well.

Sharyl: So you didn’t get picked for that— I didn’t know you were even considered.

Massie: Maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t. I don’t know. But three great positive interactions.

That was before Massie’s was the sole GOP “no” vote on two important Trump-backed bills that passed anyway: one on the budget, another a spending bill that avoided a government shutdown. He said both were fiscally irresponsible.

Trump lashed out on Truth Social, branding Massie a “GRANDSTANDER” and vowing to “lead the charge” to get him defeated in his next election.

Massie: This is deja vu. He’s called me a ‘grandstander’ again. But this time he didn’t qualify it as ‘third rate.’ So I think I’m moving up in the world. But what people know about me is if you attack me, I’m probably gonna dig in. You’re not gonna move me. I’m not bullied. I have no hard feelings toward the president. Sometimes he’s a bull in a China shop, and if a few of my dishes get broken, I’m okay.

Sharyl: Do you think that’s more about swampy people around him trying to have his ear about you?

Massie: Oh, I absolutely do. I think people were whispering in his ear, ‘You need to do something, Mr. President.’ That day, or about a day before that attack, I had come out against getting involved in a war with Iran. And I think there are people in and around the administration who are whispering in his ear, you know, ‘You need to whack this guy. He’s feeling his oats here and talking about not having a war and not getting involved in the Middle East and give him a dose of medicine.’ The tune-up doesn’t work on me. I think it’s performative to influence other members of Congress who might not be able to weather this. I joke that I’ve got Trump antibodies from a natural infection in 2020. This was my booster.

Sharyl (on-camera): For more on this story, listen to my podcast Full Measure After Hours.

Watch video here.