BREAKING: Thomas Massie Loses Primary Against Trump-Backed Challenger
Bulwark Takes
The Bulwark
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
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Summary
Sam Stein and JVL give their takes on Rep. Thomas Massie's primary loss to Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone. It's me, Sam Stein. I'm Angie at the Bullock. I'm here with JVL. And we are breaking in live coverage for this news. Tom Massey. The conservative Kentucky candidate has apparently. He gone. He gone. Reportedly, not apparently, reportedly has lost his primary against Ed Galrine, his challenger, his |
| 0:21.5 | challengers, Trump-back challenger. NBC made the call, decision desk has made the call. |
| 0:26.3 | It's, it's done. It's done. And I mean, there's a bunch of takeaways here, but JVille, |
| 0:31.9 | what's your top line one? So the, I mean, there's a lot of, this is Trump's party, as Lindsay Graham said, but the most interesting thing here is that, so Cassidy, Cassidy voted to impeach Donald Trump, which was an attack on Donald Trump. And so his voters, you know, Republican voters could see that as, well, he went after Trump. |
| 0:57.8 | Right. Massey's big sin was that he was in favor of releasing the Epstein files and that he's |
| 1:04.7 | against the war in Iran. Now, these are two things which Trump supporters ostensibly are on Massey's side of and not Trump's side, right? |
| 1:13.4 | If you just wind the clock back and ask Epstein files, all these Republicans are, you know, |
| 1:19.0 | in his Kentucky four would be like, oh, got to release the Epstein files. He said, |
| 1:24.4 | how do you think we should be holding hands with Israel and attacking Iran? |
| 1:27.8 | They was just said, what are you talking about? |
| 1:29.2 | No way, right? |
| 1:30.4 | Yeah. |
| 1:30.7 | And so there's this transubstantiation here where the same people who insist Donald Trump had nothing to do with Epstein are now punishing Thomas Massey because they see his call for the releases of the Epstein files as the attack on Donald Trump. |
| 1:47.7 | It's such a solid point. That to me is the different thing. Yeah, I hadn't even thought about it in those dimensions, but now that you're talking about it, like, transport yourself back two years. You're a congressional candidate on the Republican side, and you're running on a platform that is, at least the Epstein files, no foreign interventions, |
| 2:03.7 | deficits out of control, and we need to doge the hell out of government. |
| 2:07.3 | That's Tom Massey. |
| 2:08.7 | That's Tom Massey. |
| 2:09.4 | There it is. |
| 2:09.9 | And that's Donald Trump. |
| 2:11.4 | The transgression is that Trump has changed on all those fronts. |
| 2:16.3 | And Tom Massey hasn't. |
| 2:18.3 | So. |
... |
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