Trump vs. Massie: The Primary That Could Break the GOP

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]- Alright guys, we have an emergency episode for you, a late Monday emergency episode because we need to talk about what is going on in Kentucky with Thomas Massey.

[00:00:08]Now you might have noticed I have not talked much about straight politics over the last couple of weeks.

[00:00:14]I was just burned out.

[00:00:15]It was a lot of sexual perverts and deviance.

[00:00:17]I needed a break and at the end of the day, like what I really love, like what really makes me happy, sitting down behind this microphone is talking about the intersection between pop culture and politics.

[00:00:25]Like that is just the thing that makes me so happy.

[00:00:27]So I've been excited to focus on that for the last couple of weeks, but this is a really important thing that is happening tomorrow in Kentucky, but it is so much bigger than Kentucky.

[00:00:36]So if you are not somebody who lives in Kentucky District Four and you're like, Brett, why do I care about this race?

[00:00:40]Why do I care about this primary and Thomas Massey, please let me tell you because history is literally being made in Kentucky right now.

[00:00:47]And if you are not paying attention, you need to because Thomas Massey's primary that is happening tomorrow is now the most expensive primary in American history.

[00:00:56]But his opponents, or I should say the people funding his opponent, are openly acknowledging that he is being primaried because of his stance on Israel and BB Netanyahu among many other things.

[00:01:06]So now they are pulling out all the stops.

[00:01:09]It's not just tens of millions of dollars, it is sexual harassment allegations in the ninth hour.

[00:01:13]It is cheating scandals.

[00:01:15]They're throwing it at the wall with less than 24 hours to spare and they're seeing what sticks.

[00:01:19]And it genuinely seems like the GOP will stop at nothing to oust one of their most consistent dissenting voices.

[00:01:25]So like I said, his election is tomorrow, it is Tuesday.

[00:01:28]If you live in Kentucky District four, you have a choice to make because this really isn't just about Thomas Massey after this election, I think we will know whether Trump's hold over the GOP is still intact and that will tell us a lot about our political future here in this country.

[00:01:44]Now before we dive into this story, I just wanna remind you guys that tomorrow night I will be at Zanies here in Nashville.

[00:01:49]So if you're in the area, come on out.

[00:01:50]We have tickets at the link below.

[00:01:51]Make sure to like this video, subscribe to the channel if you've not already.

[00:01:54]And of course, bring that notification bell to stay up to date on everything that we're doing here on the Brad Cooper Show.

[00:01:58]Alright, so first and foremost, I just wanna lay the groundwork here so that you all know where I'm coming from, but I personally, personally, you don't have to agree, but I personally do love Thomas Massey.

[00:02:07]He is deeply, deeply ideologically consistent when it comes to his politics and the way that he votes and across the board, he is one of the highest, if not the highest, scoring Republicans in Congress on the Freedom Index and other congressional report cards just like it.

[00:02:19]You can see right here, he has a 99 freedom score.

[00:02:22]Barely anybody comes close to getting that high of a marketing.

[00:02:26]But of course, while that is obviously to be admired, we should celebrate that his consistency does come with a cost because he sometimes, I should say maybe oftentimes dissents, he is not somebody in the house who toes the party line.

[00:02:39]He openly calls out Trump, he calls out the GOP when they're not aligning with the ideals of limited government or America first, or the things that we voted on, the mandate that we gave Donald Trump, whether that was in his first term or the second term.

[00:02:51]And while his constituents love him, well they have overwhelmingly voted to keep him in office for over a decade time and time again, his unwillingness to fall in line, his unwillingness to toe the party line and to stop dissenting has ruffled a lot of feathers in DC and it seems like now they are just officially done.

[00:03:07]It got to the point that back in October, JD Vance even called him out on stage at a Turning Point event. Just watch.

[00:03:13]- I think the problem with Thomas, and I've told him this in private and now I guess I'll say it in public, is it's one thing to disagree with the party on a particular issue.

[00:03:23]It's one thing to take, you know, to take, to have your independent stand on a number of questions.

[00:03:27]And by the way, some of the stuff where Thomas Massey has been independent against the Republican Party, I've agreed with him, with Thomas and I worked together during 2023 where I was trying to stop the limitless flow of American money to Ukraine.

[00:03:42]And Thomas was one of the the people I was working closest with it.

[00:03:45]But that's one thing, being independent, having your own opinions is one thing.

[00:03:50]Voting against the party on every single issue, you're eventually gonna make too many enemies.

[00:03:56]And that is the problem that Thomas has had.

[00:03:59]It's not one issue, it's not three or four issues, it's that every time that we've needed Thomas for a vote, he has been completely unwilling to provide it.

[00:04:07]That is why the president of the United States has trained his desire on Thomas Massey.

[00:04:12]It's because we can never count on him for some of the most difficult votes.

[00:04:16]I wish that that weren't the case.

[00:04:17]I say that it's somebody who's known Thomas well before I got into politics, but politics is politics.

[00:04:22]And when you always vote against the party, you can't expect the party to actually back you. So - This is why I'm just so fed up, because it's the game of politics.

[00:04:32]It's not about values, it's not about what one individual man believes, what his constituents believe, what Trump voters believe and what we wanted them to do.

[00:04:40]An office note, it's about playing the game of politics.

[00:04:43]It's about needing somebody's vote and asking them to bend their values, bend their ideals, go against what their voters want to help the party.

[00:04:52]And obviously it's such a double-edged sword because there are times I'm like, oh my gosh, I just like, I wish this thing could be passed.

[00:04:58]I wish you guys could all work together, but to stand on stage and to make that the entire point, like you've made too many enemies because you just won't fall into line.

[00:05:08]I don't know if I have empathy for JD Vance in the sense because I, I feel like in general I do because he's in this administration and I often see him, you know, pushing back and really trying to, he's a great communicator.

[00:05:20]I think he communicates with voters really well.

[00:05:22]I think he's done a great job of kind of providing a window into the system and what people inside the admin are fighting against and the struggles.

[00:05:29]And he is kind of saying like, I wish it weren't the case, but unfortunately like this is what's happening.

[00:05:33]This is the game that we are all playing.

[00:05:35]So I appreciate his candour rather than trying to make up some other lie about why Thomas Massey is being primaried, why he has made so many enemies.

[00:05:42]I appreciate that he at least is just saying it's because he dissents too often.

[00:05:46]Now, like I said, in some sense from the DC political standpoint, from you know, the strategic game of getting bills passed and getting things done, I understand JD sentiment, like there are times where as a fan of Massey, he has voted against things that I have been in favour of.

[00:06:02]He has held up things that Republicans have wanted to get done and of course that can be frustrating and so many people have called him out for that.

[00:06:08]But I do think that him being so philosophically consistent, being unwavering in general is a net positive for preserving our values.

[00:06:16]Especially if you are somebody who believes in limited government.

[00:06:18]And just in general, you know, in a world where so many of our elected officials are just blatant hypocrites on everything from their personal lives to foreign policy to spending to Maha, like I would rather have at least one man in office who seemingly can't be bought.

[00:06:32]I would rather have a foreign in our side who maybe makes it harder to get things done that is asking us to be better.

[00:06:38]Because at the end of the day, from my point of view, that is what Thomas Massey's doing.

[00:06:42]He's not just trying to be a pill.

[00:06:44]A lot of times what he's pushing back on is saying, this isn't what the voters want.

[00:06:47]We can do better. We can spend less 99% of the time.

[00:06:50]That is what Massey is saying, like, do we really have to spend that?

[00:06:53]Can we do anything to reduce the deficit?

[00:06:55]I'm not going to vote for this, but of course politically that makes things more difficult.

[00:06:58]But I appreciate the consistency.

[00:07:00]But hey, maybe that, maybe that's just me.

[00:07:02]Maybe that is a crazy idea.

[00:07:04]And last year I should say, like speaking of the spending issue last year when Trump started lashing out at Massey because Massey dared to push back on the 2025 proposed budget and our obscene spending saying, Hey, we are actually spending more.

[00:07:16]You said we were gonna be spending less, we're doing the whole Doge thing, but now we're spending even more money.

[00:07:19]That's when I started to worry about Trump 2.0.

[00:07:21]It was like before Epstein, before any of that stuff, before he started lashing out at his voters.

[00:07:25]When he started lashing out at Massey, calling him a traitor, that's when I was like, oh, maybe this isn't going to go exactly as we hoped.

[00:07:32]But anyway, back to the point, I just wanted to be honest about my own personal biases and give you guys some context for all of this.

[00:07:38]But all that being said, Thomas now has his primary and he is being challenged by somebody that has been endorsed by Trump and is being backed by the GOP.

[00:07:47]And for the last year and a half, Trump has been talking about getting Massey out of office.

[00:07:51]So that is the goal for tomorrow's election.

[00:07:54]Now the cherry on top with Massey is that he is also deeply America first and anti interventionalists.

[00:07:59]Like you saw in that clip from jd.

[00:08:00]He was critical of our spending and our involvement in the war in Ukraine.

[00:08:04]He has been similarly critical about our monetary relationship with Israel, the current war in Iran, BB Netanyahu.

[00:08:09]And that last part is what really sent the GOP over the edge obviously.

[00:08:14]So fast forward to today and in rewatching that video from jd, his message to Massey back in October seems more like a warning in hindsight because Trump and his donors and the Israel lobby are doing everything in their power to primary Thomas Massey.

[00:08:28]Like this is not about what the Kentucky constituents in District four want.

[00:08:32]It is about installing a candidate who will be easier to work with in dc.

[00:08:37]They want somebody who will fall into line because they are tired of having to deal with Massey.

[00:08:42]So as an alternative, they plucked Ed Galran, I think I'm saying his name correctly.

[00:08:46]He is a farmer, he is a former Navy Seal who is essentially just running on a Trump endorsement and an anti Thomas Massey agenda.

[00:08:53]I don't know anything about this man other than he was in the military and that he was a farmer.

[00:08:56]He's part of the Cattlemen's Association, but all he is is just Trump endorsed.

[00:09:01]And what is so insane about this race, I mean there's so many things that are insane about this story.

[00:09:05]So what is just so incredibly insane is how they're openly bragging about why they want to get rid of Massey.

[00:09:12]Okay, so just look at this political article that came out yesterday morning.

[00:09:15]First of all, I want you to hear these numbers about the race because again, we are making American history with this campaign.

[00:09:19]I feel like Debbie Ryan right now where she was on the red carpet being like, I went into the executives at Disney and I said I wanna make history like that's Ed Gall right now with Trump and all this funding.

[00:09:28]Sorry, that's just like a niche side comment.

[00:09:30]Anyway, okay, so the article reads the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, APAC and other pro-Israel interest groups have uncorked over $9 million in a bid to unseat Republican representative Thomas Massey on Tuesday and a competitive primary that has shattered spending records.

[00:09:44]Prominent pro-Israel, GOP donors have funnelled millions more into a super PAC stood up by President Donald Trump's political operation that has spent nearly $7 million on the race overall ad spending has topped $32 million.

[00:09:57]Guys, hear that again? $32 million making it the most expensive house primary on record per the tracking firm ad impact.

[00:10:05]And guys, what makes this number even crazier is that ad gre, the candidate only raised about give or take $3 million himself.

[00:10:12]The rest, this allegedly close to $29 million more is all from outside lobbyists.

[00:10:18]Now to put this into even more context, the average spend on a house primary.

[00:10:23]So the kind of race that we are watching right now is between a hundred $500,000, 100 to $500,000.

[00:10:30]Maybe it possibly could creep up to around 2 million if it is a highly contested race.

[00:10:35]If it was like this in another state, $32 million is unheard of.

[00:10:40]It is insane. They are desperate to get rid of him.

[00:10:44]Now, the same political article, it points out that in past races when these same groups have been donating to candidates, they have used shell packs to hide their donations.

[00:10:52]They have not just openly said, Hey, we are these, you know, lobby groups, whatever we're donating, no, they have hid their involvement this time.

[00:10:59]They're openly investing and talking about it, but this right here is part you need to hear.

[00:11:02]This is why they are openly pulling all of the stops and bragging about it.

[00:11:06]The article goes on and says, quote, for those of us who care about these issues, ousting Massey is critical, said Gabe Goman, who is a former Republican Jewish coalition board member and a Florida based donor who is not involved in the race quote, it is super important to build and keep a wall, to let those Israel critical voices remain outside voices and not inside voices on the floor making policy and impacting policy in Washington.

[00:11:26]So what they're saying here is that if you disagree with your party, if you disagree with the GOP on foreign policy, on our relationship with an ally, if you are critical of a certain Ally's prime minister, then you do not deserve to be on the floor dictating policy.

[00:11:41]If you have this wrong thing, then we don't want you, then we will spend allegedly $29 million to keep you out.

[00:11:48]I mean that is just insane. It's not like they're saying this is some awful man, he's corrupt, he's been laundering money, he's made all of this money doing insider trading, he's betrayed our country.

[00:11:58]He's had a relationship with Fang Fang, the Chinese find none of that.

[00:12:01]It's literally that they don't like his opinion on certain issues and that those issues are worth $29 million.

[00:12:07]They're worth shattering campaign spending records.

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[00:14:19]Alright, now back to the story.

[00:14:20]Now somebody on X wrote a great summary for why this matters.

[00:14:23]I think that it is worth hearing.

[00:14:24]This was posted by a woman named Lauren and she said the Thomas Massey primary is truly insane.

[00:14:29]We are looking at the most expensive US house primary in history with spending pushing towards $35 million.

[00:14:35]Massey's opponent, ed Gall has raised just 2 million on his own.

[00:14:38]The rest of the money over 14 million is coming from outside Super pacs who desperately want mass Egon.

[00:14:43]On top of that, Pete Hegseth is being deployed to Kentucky to campaign against him.

[00:14:47]Stephen Miller and Conning have been on massive Twitter tirades attacking him.

[00:14:50]And then there was a highly coordinated spear campaign of unfounded allegations launched this week by Con Inc.

[00:14:54]Influencers, when the establishment is willing to spend $35 million plus and go to these links to take one man down, it really makes you wonder why, whether you like Massey or not this election will determine whether or not we as voters actually have a voice anymore.

[00:15:07]If outside special interest money can successfully buy a seat and sway an election like this, we have a serious, serious problem.

[00:15:13]Now in this post, Lauren is talking about the coordinated attacks on Massey.

[00:15:16]Of course, yes, he's being called an anti-Semite.

[00:15:18]Even though Massey has been so intentional about saying, you know, this is a country's leader in our relationship that I'm critiquing not a people, whatever, they are not deterred, he is still an anti-Semite.

[00:15:28]But I will say even with all of those attacks, even with all of the money that they're spending, even with Trump spending the last year and a half dedicating truth social posts to Massey, I do think that as we inch closer to this election, they are a bit worried.

[00:15:41]Now if you look at like the Polly Market and the call she predictions, it's predicted that Ed Gallery is going to win.

[00:15:46]I have no idea what the actual polls look like right now.

[00:15:48]They are just literally all over the place.

[00:15:50]I don't know if anybody really knows, but I do think that they're a bit worried because even though the GOP has made this the most expensive primary in US history, even if they are trotting out the Secretary of Defence to campaign for his challenger, I don't think they're sure that all of this is going to work because now in the final hour, literally in the last three days, his romantic relationships are now being brought into the mix.

[00:16:09]Now if you don't know, Massey was married to his high school sweetheart for 31 years.

[00:16:13]They have, I believe it's four or five children together before she unexpectedly and tragically passed away in June of 2024.

[00:16:19]Now last year, Thomas Massey remarried, that in and of itself is choice to remarry shortly after his wife died.

[00:16:25]That opened him up to slander from the president and his critics.

[00:16:27]But now he is being allegedly accused of sexual misconduct and harassment from somebody that he also allegedly dated soon after his wife died like two months after his wife died.

[00:16:37]Others are saying that he was cheating on his wife when she died.

[00:16:40]That is not confirmed. People are just running with these stories and now this entire thing is so amplified.

[00:16:44]The Trump himself is posting photos of Massey with this woman trying to incriminate him and saying, look how awful he is.

[00:16:49]He's doing these things with this woman.

[00:16:51]He's not even posting a caption, he's just posting the photo of Massey and this woman.

[00:16:55]And listen, like I, before I get into this, I have long maintained that while I wholeheartedly believe that Trump was the best option for us, I was so happy and excited to vote for him both times.

[00:17:06]I think that he is a great businessman and while I do love so much of what he has done for this country, I have never and will never because I am not an idiot.

[00:17:13]I have never pretended that he is some kind of saint or somebody that we should be looking up to and admiring because of his stellar moral compass like that.

[00:17:21]That's just not Trump. And that's okay.

[00:17:23]It's just important to not pretend that he is.

[00:17:25]And so the man deciding to post this picture of Massey using his romantic relationships, his multiple marriages, the allegations of cheating, the possible sexual harassment as further reasons for why he should be primaried, he's just a little bit ironic is all I am trying to say based on Trump's track record based on his family and his marriages.

[00:17:45]Like I understand if you hate the guy and you want him primaried, but maybe, maybe not this because these are the same types of allegations, the same character assassinations that you yourself, Mr. President, had to fight to get into office both times.

[00:17:56]So like maybe, possibly maybe just sit that one out is all I'm saying.

[00:18:00]Anyway, moving on from that, as I'm sure you have gathered by now, like the reason why I did this emergency episode, the reason why I am talking about this is because this race is about a lot more than just Massey versus Galled.

[00:18:12]It is Trump versus his dissenting Republican voices.

[00:18:15]It is the sceptics and the isolationists versus the pro-Israel side.

[00:18:19]It is the people who don't think that Maha is important and wants to betray the Maha base versus the Maha voters that Massey fights for every single day.

[00:18:27]And so while yes, this is about Kentucky's fourth district and who is going to represent them in Congress, it is about so much more like this single race I think is going to tell us what direction the GOP and conservatives are going in outside of X, outside of social media.

[00:18:41]Like when push comes to shove, even with all of this money behind this candidate, if Thomas Massey wins, that sends a massive, massive message to Washington.

[00:18:50]But I'm not sure if they can ignore, and I think that is what they're so worried about.

[00:18:54]I think it will tell us whether a Trump stamp of approval, a Trump endorsement, is still enough to win an election or whether his political capital is waning only two years into this administration.

[00:19:04]So that is why all ayes and all dollars are on Kentucky.

[00:19:07]So let me know what you guys think in the comments below.

[00:19:09]If you're in Kentucky's district four, let me know what you are thinking.

[00:19:11]Please go out and vote. That is why it is so, so incredibly important.

[00:19:15]Make your voices heard.