Trump may have sent Hegseth to the campaign trail for another reason: analyst

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]certainly views it like that. The question is, do Republican voters here in Kentucky, there's no doubt the congressman, he realizes he's in the fight for his political life, he's holding a final rally tonight in Lewis County, his uh near his hometown. The question is, will he win tomorrow and go on to an eighth term or for Massie, will that be the end of the contrarian road?

[00:00:21]Dana >> Jeff, thank you so much for that reporting. I'm joined here by a group of terrific reporters. Manu, you uh cover Thomas Massie day in and day out on Capitol Hill. What are you looking for in the next 24 hours?

[00:00:35]>> Well, I talked to Massie about this race at the end of last week. He said it was going to be close. He himself didn't exactly know how it would go down. He has been in fights before, but none like this. You know, he's got a unique personal brand in this district. So, if anyone could sustain the avalanche of Trump attacks, it could be him. However, there are so many that are coming his way. Seeing Hexet there, seeing Trump day in and day out attack Thomas Massie.

[00:01:02]This is a district that is overwhelmingly supportive of the president. So, it'll be very, very difficult for him to hang on here. But if he does, that would be an enormous upset. I would say that right now Thomas Massie would be the underdog heading into this, particularly as we've seen Trump win time and again in primary elections like this where the base is obviously very MAGA aligned. Jamie, I I just want to take a moment to I don't want to gloss over what Jeff was talking about and what you just alluded to, which is that Pete Hexath is going to campaign for uh for Thomas Massie. He's also going to participate in a Purple Heart ceremony. Entirely appropriate. Uh that's going to happen in in Kentucky.

[00:01:42]Being on the campaign trail, I was racking my brain to try to remember the last time a uh sect defaf, anybody who was in charge of the Pentagon at any point in time, never mind um during a uh you know military conflict, ceasefire or not, went and participated in a very open political process.

[00:02:02]>> So I I think it's stunning. First of all, it's not important that he's at the Pentagon in the middle of the war with the blockade. That says something either way. I I also think it says how valuable the White House considers Pete Hegathth out on the campaign trail. So for all these people who've been saying Pete Hegathth doesn't have long as Secretary of Defense or for a couple of people I know who think they might be the next Secretary of Defense, don't hold your breath. I mean that that the White House that Trump thinks that Pete Hegs should be down there campaigning right now says a lot.

[00:02:43]>> Listen to what Massie said yesterday about uh this Trump effort, this, you know, no holds barred effort by the president to try to defeat Massie.

[00:02:55]>> They're desperate. That's why they're sending the Secretary of War to my district tomorrow. That's why the president's losing sleep and tweeting about this. That's why Apac has dumped another $3 million into my race this weekend. It's because they're panicked and they really haven't been able to gain a lead in this race.

[00:03:13]>> And Michelle, this is what the president said about Massie on Truth Social this morning. The worst congressman in the long and storied history of the Republican party is Thomas Massie. He's an obstructionist and a fool. Vote him out of office tomorrow, Tuesday. It will be a great day for America.

[00:03:28]>> Yeah. I mean, the congressman says desperate. One man's desperate is another's determined. This is personal.

[00:03:34]This has been going on a long time.

[00:03:36]Remember that Congressman Massie actually endorsed Ronda Santis in the 2024 primary. He was one of the few congressmen to do that. So there's there's a lot here. It wasn't just one issue that kind of set them up for this conflict. But one thing to note about what Jamie pointed out what's interesting is we've also heard that Pete Heg might be potentially interested in running for president. This is a very interesting kind of campaign debut and I do wonder if on some level we know that the president likes to kind of test how people are in the campaign trail if we're going to see some of that HEG campaign style today.

[00:04:03]>> And you know just going back to the bigger picture of the loyalty test that has been in place ever since Donald Trump entered politics for him and it's just gotten even more intense as the years have gone on. Thomas Massie, I was actually surprised by this. You're probably not. But if you look at his votes overall, because you think of Massie, you think he's not going to vote with Republicans. He voted with Republicans 77.6% of the time. Now, he also defied the president about a almost a quarter of the time, which is very out of bounds for a Republican. And and of course, some of the things that Massie defied the president on are really big important pieces of legislation. Um he voted no on the so-called big beautiful bill. He was the lone no on a uh federal stop gap spending plan and he was the lone Republican to vote for the war powers resolution reigning in the president.

[00:05:00]>> Yeah. And look, he's consistent. Not to mention, I mean, he's consistent because he is a libertarian-minded conservative who typically votes against spending bills. He has a debt clock, a national debt clock that he wears on his lapel showing how high the national debt is going every single second. He has been very much against interventionist policies, foreign policy of any administration. So that's why you're seeing him constantly vote back vote against Trump when it comes to Iran. But it was really his lead role on the Epstein files beyond all those other issues. Yes, he is a difficult vote to get, but it was his determination to be able to get this bill signed into law that is was, you know, when you look back at this Congress, the way that he was able Massie with a bipartisan group of members, a small bipartisan group of members to defy the president, to defy the House Republican leadership, get a bill passed with only one dissenting vote in both chambers of Congress and enact that Epstein files law was a remarkable achievement, but it could end his political career.

[00:06:01]>> Could I just add there are hot button issues for Donald Trump. So look at Senator Cassidy. He voted to convict on impeachment. Doesn't get much more sensitive than that with Donald Trump except the Epstein files. So it's true that Massie, you know, had all of these others, but the Epstein files sticks with Donald Trump. Also just remarkable too just how much focus in this midterm election season Trump is placing on vengeance politics. I mean they could lose the House, they could lose the Senate. He's got so much money in his bank account that they could spend in other races to make the case about why Republicans should stay in power, go after Democrats, but instead it is purely focused at this point in the cycle beating Bill Cassidy, beating Thomas Massie and and stamping out any descent. It's remarkable. It it's such a good point and there's so much money like in some of the other races that you were talking about intraarty races.

[00:07:00]There's so much money being spent on this one congressional district in Kentucky and it's Republican versus Republican. Um I do want to show a little bit of an ad that is coming from a super PAC, but it does speak to some of the not so subtle undertones in this race.

[00:07:21]Trans activist billionaire Paul Singer is bringing his trans madness to Kentucky. Singer is spending millions to remove Massie.

[00:07:30]>> Um it was pretty clear. Maybe you have to look for it, but I think the point of it is it's supposed to be um sort of a subconscious thing. You see that Jewish star behind Paul Singer, a Jewish Republican donor. And this again is an outside group on uh running an ad on behalf of uh of Massie. And what Massie said to Axios is I don't get to express my preference on super PAC ads. But the fact that that is just kind of considered normal these days speaks volumes, >> right? That's that's not a denunciation of it. And that is that's an ugly ad. I mean, there's no getting around that is not subtle whatsoever. the fact that this has kind of slid into this race just shows you that this there seems to be no bottom at this point. And you know, I mean, tomorrow we have this this election, maybe this will stop, but it's not the end of of these ugly attacks coming into some of these races, including party on party.

[00:08:29]>> Can I just quickly add >> it's not alone. Axios did an extraordinary piece where they went through attacks on Jewish members of Congress and they were provided with voicemails with texts >> to say it was horrific. It was it was beyond ugly. And at the end of it, um Jared Moscowitz said it's now in the mainstream >> and I think that's what's important.

[00:09:01]It's all gloves are off. There is no shame.

[00:09:04]>> Uh and Jared Moscow was on with Sarah Seidner on Friday night playing some of the voicemails that he got. Uh coming up in politics, defeat sometimes brings clarity.

[00:09:16]Our country is not about one individual.