The Trump Administration's 'Covid Bailout' was a massive $6 Trillion bill that lit the fires of the inflation that we're still suffering from four years later. Thomas Massie did his best to stop it.
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Voice Vote Controversy
00:14:39
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| Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report. | |
| With me today is Daniel McAdams, our co-host. | |
| Daniel, good to have you here today. | |
| How are you doing today, Father? | |
| I'm doing fine. | |
| I'm doing fine. | |
| And we have a special guest. | |
| It'll be very interesting. | |
| He's been on our program before, but he's so famous and he gets so many viewers that we like to have him on back again. | |
| That's Thomas Massey from Kentucky, the well-known congressman who stands for the Constitution. | |
| Thomas, welcome to the program. | |
| Thanks for having me, Ron. | |
| I'm the most hated man in Washington, D.C. this week, but I'm wearing that proudly. | |
| Nancy Pelosi said I was a dangerous menace. | |
| Well, then that's why we welcome you, I guess. | |
| So anyway, I find it very interesting. | |
| You stood firm and you were trying to make a point as well as follow the rules, you know, and get a vote. | |
| And you tinker around with these little bills. | |
| I think you have to wait till they're big enough that they'll wake up the other Congress. | |
| This was just a couple trillion dollars. | |
| Why should we have to have a vote on that? | |
| It sounds to me like they ran roughshot, not only over you, which is secondary, you're running roughshot over the whole Constitution. | |
| So why don't you sort of give our viewers an update on this because you did make the national news. | |
| And sometimes bad national news at the beginning turns into good news on the long run if you're speaking the truth. | |
| And I believe you are. | |
| So give us a sort of an update on what transpired. | |
| Okay, so early last week, the Senate passed a bill, 96 to nothing. | |
| Your son was absent because he's been diagnosed with the virus, but it was 96 to nothing in the Senate. | |
| And they came up with these rules for how we could vote without exposing each other. | |
| We would vote in shifts. | |
| We would come in 30 at a time if we needed to vote. | |
| And they said, we'll give you 24 hours' notice when we're going to vote on this bill. | |
| But Tuesday, it became obvious to me, last Tuesday, that they weren't going to vote at all, that this plan to have this vote wasn't going to happen. | |
| And they were going to try and pass it by unanimous consent with an empty chamber. | |
| That was my suspicion. | |
| So I got in a car at midnight Tuesday and I drove through the night. | |
| I slept for an hour at a rest stop and then I drove the rest of the way the next morning. | |
| I made sure that the unanimous consent did not happen. | |
| And they realized it was pretty sketchy to try and do unanimous consent. | |
| So they decided to do a voice vote. | |
| So on that was Wednesday, they said, we'll do a voice vote Friday. | |
| And they told everybody to stay home. | |
| They were like, you don't need to be here for this. | |
| Well, I got out my handy pocket constitution and I looked up Article 1, Section 5. | |
| And lo and behold, it says, a majority of Congress needs to come to work if you're going to pass bills. | |
| And I think the founding fathers were very wise to put that in there. | |
| It seems somewhat obvious, but it wasn't obvious to my colleagues. | |
| So I let them know on Thursday because everybody was trying to blame me for delaying this vote. | |
| And I actually didn't delay it a minute. | |
| Now, if one person could stop a bill, I would have stopped it. | |
| I'm going to be honest with you. | |
| But one person can't stop it. | |
| One person might be able to delay it, but that wasn't my intent. | |
| My intent was to make people come to work and go on the record. | |
| So on Thursday, I told our leadership, I said, you better have a quorum here. | |
| And they said, why? | |
| I said, because the Constitution requires it. | |
| And on Friday, I'm going to ask for a recorded vote. | |
| And if you don't give it to me, I'm going to note the absence of a quorum. | |
| And that would stop the bill. | |
| So that's when they started to take me seriously. | |
| By the way, I've been doing this for, you know, as long as I've been in Congress, for seven and a half years, I've been asking for recorded votes, specifically on bills that spend billions of dollars. | |
| Now, this one spends trillions of dollars. | |
| So I made, you know, on Friday, well, Thursday night, you can imagine, Ron, the arm twisting that was going on. | |
| I was offered things. | |
| I was threatened things. | |
| And then on Friday morning, I got a call from the president. | |
| I'm not going to relate the contents of that call, but it was a cordial call. | |
| And I had some of my best friends were texting me saying, look, we want you to come back to Congress. | |
| So don't go down there and light yourself on fire because we need you to come back to Congress. | |
| And I talked to some of my staff and they were like, look, do you even want to come back to Congress if this is the way Congress works? | |
| And I said, no, I don't. | |
| This is like our country's going to hell in a handbasket. | |
| And this bill is the worst bill I've ever seen in the history of mankind. | |
| It's the largest wealth transfer from taxpayers to the super rich in the history of mankind. | |
| Like the Roman emperors couldn't pull off this kind of pillage. | |
| FDR wasn't this bold. | |
| It's a $6 trillion bill, actually, because this gives the Fed $400 billion and lets them leverage it. | |
| It'll probably about $10 to $1. | |
| So they'll have $4 trillion over there. | |
| Congress will have $2 trillion. | |
| I've done the math on this. | |
| If you take $6 trillion and divide it by 100 million families, that comes out to $60,000 a family of spending, loaning, borrowing, or printing. | |
| But each family is probably going to get $3,000 at most. | |
| Where does the other 95% of that money go to? | |
| Well, it goes to the rich. | |
| And so, I mean, I was thinking that even the Bernie bros might be upset with this, but I didn't have anybody there to back me up on requesting a vote. | |
| There were some who indicated they were no votes. | |
| Now, in all history, we'll never know who was yay and nay. | |
| We'll never even know who showed up because when the time came, they debated for four hours, by the way. | |
| Four hours. | |
| They say I was delaying the vote, but they said, instead of having a vote, we'll have a four-hour debate. | |
| And I'm like, wait, a recorded vote takes 15 minutes and you want a four-hour debate. | |
| And they said, well, yeah, because we don't want to vote. | |
| And some people want to say their yes and some people might want to say their no. | |
| So in the four-hour debate, there was like an hour left. | |
| And I walked up and I was like, hey, when do I get to speak? | |
| And they said, you're at the top of the wait list. | |
| And they said, wait, what do you mean? | |
| They said, well, these other congressmen indicated interest in speaking before you did. | |
| And so you'll be at the top of the wait list, which is code for, we're not letting you speak. | |
| So I didn't get to even speak on the bill during the four-hour debate. | |
| When it was all said and done, they passed the bill on a voice vote. | |
| I requested a recorded vote. | |
| Something that's never happened in the seven and a half years that I've been in Congress happened at that point. | |
| They denied the request for a recorded vote. | |
| The only real parliamentary option for me at that time was to note the absence of a quorum, which is what I did. | |
| And they filed in, they had congressmen like in reserve, I guess, and they filed them into the gallery and down on the floor and kept the spacing, you know, the social distancing. | |
| And then the speaker goes, there's a quorum bill's passed. | |
| Boom. | |
| Put the gavel down. | |
| Like they didn't even say how many were there. | |
| Now, some people speculate they didn't really have a quorum. | |
| I actually think they did have a quorum. | |
| I would guess there were 250 or 300 people there, which makes their denial of the recorded vote even more nefarious. | |
| They knew they had enough people there to conduct business, but they were trying to conceal both the identities of those who showed up and didn't show up, as well as for all time protect all of the Republican and Democratic incumbents from having to own this vote. | |
| So I joked with some of my colleagues. | |
| I said, you know, I used the Constitution and I was able to make you show up for work, but I wasn't able to make you work. | |
| Okay, I think Daniel has a comment and a question. | |
| Well, something we talked about, you know, first of all, well, you embarrassed them. | |
| That's the worst thing you can possibly do. | |
| But I just wonder, you know, maybe it's been a while since I've been over there working, but how is it possible that they could deny you a request for a recorded vote? | |
| Doesn't that go against the House rules? | |
| Well, the House rules say that a fifth of the members must stand. | |
| And they didn't, you know, if a recorded vote is requested, and if, you know, the leadership, Kevin and Nancy, were telling everybody don't stand. | |
| But even if they had stood, even if 99% of them had stood, I talked to the parliamentarian before this all went down. | |
| I said, what if I think a majority is standing and the speaker rules against me? | |
| He said, that's not debatable or appealable. | |
| The speaker's count is certain. | |
| So anyways, and I have a lot of respect for the parliamentarian, but he was just explaining the way the rules work. | |
| Yeah. | |
| You know, you did one thing, though, to reassure the American people because the American people watch and they have complaints and they said that there's too much stalemate in the Congress and there's too much partisanship fighting back and forth. | |
| And you guys just can't get together and have bipartisanship agreement. | |
| Now there, you went and did this and you have undermined their theory that there's no bipartisanship and lo and behold, the bipartisans came through. | |
| Pelosi and the Republicans work well together. | |
| So shouldn't this be an answer to these people? | |
| Watch out for bipartisanship. | |
| Yes, watch out for bipartisanship. | |
| What Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy had in common, they both had the goal of protecting their members in their primary races. | |
| Now, when it gets to the general election, they'll battle it out. | |
| But Kevin McCarthy and Nancy Pelosi also had another goal. | |
| They want to be re-elected as the leaders of their respective parties. | |
| Not, you know, they want to get that re-election. | |
| Whether one of them is the speaker and one of them is the minority leader, it doesn't matter. | |
| They need to get to the top of the heat. | |
| And the way they do that is by being sort of like patriarchs or matriarchs and taking care of their members. | |
| And so one of the parts of the incumbent protection package that each of them offer to their members is: we'll insulate you from the tough votes. | |
| So, Daniel? | |
| That's incredible. | |
| You know, there's a piece in the New York Post today. | |
| I think that's also the paper that named you the most hated man in America. | |
| It says, this quotes you saying that you felt like you were actually doing Trump a favor, despite the fact that he was a little bit grouchy with you over this. | |
| You felt like you were doing him a favor by asking for this vote. | |
| Maybe you can tell us what your logic was in that. | |
| Yeah, absolutely. | |
| You know, the people who are saying you don't have a plan, don't go down there and set yourself on fire. | |
| I said, I do have a plan. | |
| And here's the plan. | |
| If nobody objects to this coronavirus bill, by the way, it was the third bill. | |
| And if we all stay home and Pelosi gets to pass a bill with nobody there, that sets a precedent. | |
| And then when the fourth bill comes up, travel's going to be harder. | |
| Let's imagine it happens in a week or a month or two months from now. | |
| Travel's going to be harder and there will be more congressmen who have contracted the virus. | |
| And if nobody stood up on the third bill, nobody would have a leg to stand up on the fourth bill. | |
| So what I'm hoping is on the fourth bill, which Nancy Pelosi has promised, she said the third bill, $2 trillion was just a down payment. | |
| And so let's take her at her word. | |
| Do you know tomorrow, if I hadn't done this, she could have a vote, she could call, ask for unanimous consent, and she can pass it right there on the floor with nobody there. | |
| And who could argue with that if we had already let one pass that way? | |
| So what I have done is to strengthen his hand, also McConnell's hand to the extent he's involved in this negotiation, but I've strengthened the Republicans' hand by showing the Democrats they don't get to pass bills in an empty chamber. | |
| Thomas, you mentioned that the executive branch, a representative of the executive branch, tried to change your mind. | |
| And I'm sure Republicans have worked on as well as Democrats, but would talk to you and put pressure on you because they all agreed that we can't have this kind of mucking around with the Constitution. | |
| That's old-fashioned. | |
| But what about outside the Congress, lobbyists? | |
| Were they involved in this at all? | |
| Did any of them mess with you or did they just fear you're a lost cause? | |
| Or did outside groups of people, did any conservative groups come to you and say, well, under these circumstances, you know, this is a real emergency. | |
| So why are you doing that? | |
| Did you get any of that? | |
| I did, Ron. | |
| And you and I haven't talked about this, so I don't know how you could predict it other than I'm sure it happened to you. | |
| But first of all, let me talk about the obvious ones. | |
| The Chamber of Commerce, my local Chamber of Commerce was trying to melt my phone lines, you know, saying, don't you, you know, don't do this. | |
| And by the way, they represent only a very tiny small fraction of my constituents. | |
| And I get along with the member companies in the Chamber of Commerce just fine. | |
| It's just sort of the management of the Chamber of Commerce was trying to stop me from doing this. | |
| But there was one conservative organization, and I can't call them out on your show because they're helping me out. | |
| And I think they had two concerns. | |
| Number one, if there was a recorded vote, some of the other people they were helping out would vote the wrong way. | |
| Or that if they voted one way or the other, if they voted the right way, it would hurt them in their general election. | |
| And that's a fair criticism. | |
| They said, look, you're in a safe district in November, even though your fate is not certain in June. | |
| It is in November if you win your primary. | |
| Whereas we've got these other members. | |
| So think about the other Republicans when you request this vote. | |
| And then they also had the argument that, look, we don't want you to lose your election. | |
|
Standing Up For Beliefs
00:07:12
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| You're walking into a tornado here. | |
| And that's what I did. | |
| By the way, one of my staff said, do you really want to be that guy tomorrow? | |
| And I said, I do not want to be that guy tomorrow. | |
| If I could find somebody to do it, I would step out of the way, let somebody else be that guy. | |
| I said, but two years from now, I want to be that guy who did it tomorrow. | |
| Like looking back on it, whether I win my reelection or don't win my reelection, I would be in agony and tormented by my memories if I didn't take this effort to uphold the Constitution while everybody seems to be on fire running around saying now's not a good time to think about the Constitution. | |
| Daniel? | |
| Thomas, here's something that I'm really interested in. | |
| And we know that you got beat up in the Beltway quite a bit because of this, but I'm wondering what happened in the bigger part of the country called the country. | |
| What kind of reaction were you getting? | |
| Were people all of a sudden saying, hey, who is this guy? | |
| I need to support him. | |
| What was the contrast between the Beltway and the real country? | |
| Well, the real country really came around quickly to support me. | |
| I've got amazing support here in the district. | |
| Even some people who texted me Thursday who said, hey, maybe you shouldn't do that. | |
| By Friday, they were texting me, sorry I ever doubted you. | |
| And then the people who've never known me before have been calling in and offering support. | |
| At my website, ThomasMassey.com. | |
| Since Friday, I've received 3,000 donations from all 50 states. | |
| And the average donation is $65. | |
| Wow. | |
| Just to sort of indicate the kind of support that I received. | |
| And I'll tell you why. | |
| It wasn't just the money that people have donated because they know I've got a tough election now. | |
| It was the stories they sent me. | |
| A single mom sent me a note on Twitter and said, my 13-year-old daughter stays at home by herself, and I go to work every day at Pepsi. | |
| She works at Pepsi, which you wouldn't think is an essential function when the government starts doing central planning. | |
| But in any case, she said, I work at Pepsi, and my daughter stays at home, and I haven't missed a day since this virus broke out. | |
| And I live in X County and X state. | |
| And I'm not going to tell the county or the state. | |
| And she said, we're one of the hardest hit areas in the country. | |
| And I'm still going to work. | |
| She said, so you give it to them. | |
| You tell them the truth. | |
| Because what my colleagues were saying, Daniel, is, well, you'll be exposing us to the virus if we have to travel. | |
| And meanwhile, they're telling the truck drivers to keep driving. | |
| They're telling the farmers to keep farming. | |
| They're telling the Amazon warehouse workers to keep sorting the packages so they can get it at their house. | |
| And they're telling the grocery store baggers, bag my groceries and bring it to my car. | |
| Meanwhile, they don't want to go to work. | |
| They get $174,000 a year and free health care. | |
| Right. | |
| Thomas, I'm going to ask you one question, short question, and then we're going to close out. | |
| And I'd like you to be able to give them the address and add to those number of people that have responded to the publicity that you've gotten. | |
| But the one thing that I wonder about is how the people react now versus later. | |
| And I experienced this with a lot of people. | |
| Of course, I stood against the war in Iraq. | |
| And there were a few good conservatives, and we won't talk about who did it, but there were a few good conservatives that took it and really got hit hard. | |
| And it lasted longer and probably was treated a little rougher than you're being treated, but not to soften that any. | |
| And they thought they could lose. | |
| And all of a sudden, time changed it, and they changed their mind. | |
| I can remember one time somebody, a close supporter of mine from the, and he was in the military, really get after me for voting for that against that political war, the popular war, a patriotic war. | |
| And yet a year later, he came and was complimented. | |
| So I think that'll change. | |
| I think if anybody's giving you grief, I think it's going to change. | |
| It sounds like they've already made some changes. | |
| So I think doing the right thing at the right time and standing up for it is something that is way over and above the issue itself. | |
| It isn't the dollar amounts. | |
| It's standing up for something you believe in and stating it clearly. | |
| And Thomas, I think that's where you have excelled. | |
| Give the address out how you're people can help you out. | |
| Yeah, the easiest way to help me is to go to my website, thomasmassey.com. | |
| Massey spelled M-A-S-S-I-E. | |
| So ThomasMassey.com, there's a donate tab. | |
| Like I said, the average donation has been $65. | |
| We've raised over $200,000. | |
| By the way, Ron, I'm the worst fundraiser in Washington, D.C. In five days, I've raised more money than I raised in 2019. | |
| Okay? | |
| Like all of 2019, I didn't raise this much money. | |
| And it's still probably not enough to win because what's happened, we don't have enough yet, is some people that have a lot of money got really mad that I might, I mean, maybe they were doing insider trading and they were assured that the stock market would move a certain way when this bill passed at a certain time. | |
| In any case, some people are really mad at me, and they are allegedly funding super PACs to run against me. | |
| So I've got Wall Street and the big banks against me. | |
| And so I am going to need that money. | |
| What was a certain race is now my opponents got life breathed into his, what was a stillborn campaign. | |
| The funny thing is, he says he's pro-Trump, but he's deleted all of his social media account postings. | |
| But we have some of those postings that we've been showing people that show he was never Trumper. | |
| Like he said he hoped the military does a coup against Trump. | |
| Like those, that was after Trump was elected. | |
| So any case, but he's a chameleon. | |
| He says he's going to be more supportive of Trump, that I haven't supported Trump enough. | |
| By the way, Trump's already sort of backing off this bill because the base is really pushing back on this bill, especially with some of the stuff close he got. | |
| But I know you're short on time. | |
| So I just want to let people know that we've got $210,000 since Friday, $65 at a time. | |
| Some of them are $5, some of them are $1,000. | |
| But if you can do anything at thomasmassey.com, I need every penny I can get to beat this guy. | |
| Otherwise, the swamp wins. | |
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Thomas's Risky Reversal
00:00:58
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| Otherwise, they get to say, see what happened. | |
| Remember that Massey guy? | |
| Yeah, everybody thought that was real cool for him to go against the swamp that day. | |
| Well, he's not here anymore. | |
| And that's the problem. | |
| This is a proxy war. | |
| Well, Thomas, I want to thank you very much for being on. | |
| And I think it's very impressive what you're doing. | |
| And hopefully we can help you to bring some more supporters to you. | |
| But thank you for being on with us today. | |
| Thanks, Ron. | |
| Thanks, Daniel. | |
| And I want to thank our viewers for tuning into this very special report. | |
| I think it was very informative. | |
| And even though I've been to Congress, I think he explained some of the details of how they run roughshot over an individual who wants to do this radical thing and practice and follow the Constitution. | |
| That's a risky position you take in Washington. | |
| And we'd like to reverse this. | |
| And Thomas Massey is doing his very best to reverse that attitude. | |
| But thank you, everybody, for tuning in to the Liberty Report. | |