Last Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives took what once seemed like the impossible step of voting 427-1 to release the Epstein files. The Senate quickly gave its unanimous blessing on the legislation, too.
Republicans did so with the permission of President Donald Trump, who last Sunday realized he could no longer block what appears to be even more unsavory truths about a convicted sex offender and his complicated allies and accomplices.
But if we ever do get a full release of files, and a full reckoning of the crimes, it will be largely due to Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie.
Massie and California Democrat Ro Khanna have been pushing their discharge petition for months. The Epstein files were deemed so dangerous to Trump that House Speaker Mike Johnson shut down the House and refused to seat a new representative rather than allow the issue to come to a vote.
It was an easy choice for Khanna. But Massie had to oppose his party and stand with his principles, something that seems extremely difficult for Republicans to do these days. In doing so, he seemed to break the Trump fever, leading to MAGA stars like Marjorie Taylor Greene also standing up to Dear Leader.
They’re both suffering the consequences. Greene announced Friday that she’s stepping down from Congress in January after Trump called her a “traitor.” And he made heinous insinuations about Massie’s second marriage, while supporting a primary challenger against him.
But Massie has won this round. And most importantly, he showed that standing up to Trump could be the right thing, morally, and even politically. The cracks are starting for this lame duck presidency.
Personally, I always thought that if MAGA voters didn’t care that Trump paid off a porn star he’d had an affair with while his wife nursed a new baby at home, they wouldn’t care about anything. But it turns out, thankfully, that child sex trafficking is the red line. Better late than never.
Massie’s political independence, or maybe a kind of contrary libertarianism, has put him in Trump’s sights before. He opposed the U.S. strikes on Iran. He voted no on Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill because it increased the debt significantly, one of only two GOP Congressmen to do so.
This is what our elected representatives are supposed to do in stark opposition to the lickspittle contingent of most Republicans in Washington today. Thanks to them, Congress has handed over the power of the purse, the power to conduct lawless war, the power to do nearly anything he wants to Trump, a wannabe king. It’s both scary and appalling to witness grown men and women cower like babies in front of him.
Thank goodness Kentucky can point to Massie, and to some extent, Sen. Rand Paul, to show what political independence looks like. Our democracy is built on the separation of powers and the force of elected officials who do what’s best for their constituents, not for their president.
Massie is showing that courage every day. Let’s hope his constituents will do the same next year and send him back to Congress.
Linda B. Blackford is a longtime reporter at the Lexington Herald-Leader in Lexington, Kentucky. A Virginia native, she attended the University of Virginia.
