CINCINNATI — Kentucky's Rep. Thomas Massie claimed on ABC News on Sunday that Republicans are spending more than $1 million in attack ads against him.
Massie, a Republican who represents roughly all of Northern Kentucky and more, appeared on ABC News' "This Week," where he talked about a bipartisan bill he's introducing with Democratic Rep. Ro Khana, calling for the release of all Jeffrey Epstein files.
While Massie and Khanna discussed the bill and their motives behind it, Massie also threw in at the end of the segment how Republicans are spending lots of money on attack ads against him.
"I'll tell you what's politically going to be a liability is if we don't vote on this and we go into the midterms and everybody becomes, you know, they just check out because Republicans didn't keep their promise, and Donald Trump. We'll lose the majority. By the way, they're also running $1.8 million of ads against me, Republicans are," Massie said.
Massie followed the claim up by saying Republicans are funding the ads because he's bringing measures like his bipartisan bill to the floor.
Watch the full video of Massie on "This Week" below:
This isn't the first time Massie has pitted himself against his fellow Republicans — or even President Trump himself.
In June, Trump vowed to campaign "really hard" to unseat Massie after the congressman criticized Trump's decision to strike Iran.
On social media, Massie shared Trump's announcement that a "very successful" attack had been launched on Iran, calling the decision "not Constitutional." Following that initial post, Massie continued to criticize the move on his social media accounts.
"When two countries are bombing each other daily in a hot war, and a third country joins the bombing, that's an act of war," Massie wrote on social media. "I'm amazed at the mental gymnastics being undertaken by neocons in DC (and their social media bots) to say we aren't at war... so they can make war."
After Massie's initial comments, Trump took to his own social media to share his own criticisms of Massie, including his declaration that he plans to campaign for Massie's opponent in the upcoming Republican primary in the spring.
"Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky is not MAGA, even though he likes to say he is," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Actually, MAGA doesn't want him, doesn't know him and doesn't respect him. He is a negative force who almost always Votes "NO," no matter how good something may be. He's a simple minded "grandstander" who thinks it's good politics for Iran to have the highest level Nuclear weapon, while at the same time yelling "DEATH TO AMERICA" at every chance they get."
Trump goes on in the post, throwing insults at Massie and calling him "weak, ineffective," "lazy, grandstanding, nonproductive" and adding that MAGA should "drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, like the plague!"
Massie then shared Trump's diatribe against him, saying Trump "declared so much War on him today it should require an Act of Congress."
In May, Trump also took a swipe at Massie over the Congressman's opposition to Trump's "big, beautiful" budget bill.
“I think he is a grandstander, frankly,” Trump said. “I think he should be voted out of office.”
Massie was most recently re-elected to Kentucky's House in 2022, defeating challengers Matthew Lehman and Ethan Osborne with 65% of the vote in Kentucky's 4th congressional district race. He has been in Congress since 2012, when he won both a special and regular election to fill former Rep. Geoff Davis' open seat as part of the Tea Party movement. He was previously judge-executive of Lewis County.
