Speaking in an angry and entertaining interview on CNN’s “The Lead,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) sounded off on the since-deposed Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), arguing that the gadfly of a congressional representative might as well be a Democrat representative because “a lot of times you saw Thomas Massie on the other side.”
As background, Massie lost his primary race on the night of Tuesday, May 19, with the Trump-backed Ed Gallerein blowing him out of the water. That came after a very contentious campaign, with Trump and others alleging that Rep. Massie is often not willing to productively work with Republicans, and Massie insisting that those who disagree with him are controlled by Israel. He lost handily.
Such was the background for Rep. Gimenez sounding off on Rep. Massie when speaking with CNN host Jake Tapper. Tapper broached the subject by asking, shortly before the primary was called, whether he agrees with President Trump’s decision to go on the warpath against Massie.
Tapper asked, “Your Republican colleague, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, he’s going to find out in just a matter of minutes, really, whether he gets to keep his job. For months, the president has been railing against him, calling him an obstruction. Is the sleazebag the worst Republican in history? Do you agree?”
Responding, Rep. Gimenez argued that Massie is often contrarian just to be a contrarian, saying, “Look, I’m not going to, you know, launch names. Thomas Massie was one of my colleague, but I will say this, every time that we voted, he was certainly not surprising that Thomas Massie didn’t vote with the conference. And so he was a contrarian to be a contrarian.”
Continuing, he argued that there might as well have been a Democrat in Massie’s seat given how often he voted with the left, saying, “At first I thought it was, it was all due to, well, this is the way he feels and all that but at the end, I started feeling he was just saying no just say no. And so, you know, that’s a problem. And so, you know, you might as well have a Democrat in the seat of every time that we’ve got something coming up, you’re going to vote with the Democrats.”
Adding to that, the Florida Republican said that with Massive thrown out of his seat, now there might be a Republican who votes like a Republican in that seat, saying, “And so maybe we need somebody in the in the seat that every once in a while we’ll go with us because he’s supposed to be a Republican.”
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Concluding, the representative explained, “I mean, calling him a name, fine, I’m not going to do that. But, you know, without a doubt, more often than not he would not vote with us. He would vote for the rules and stuff like that, things that we’re supposed to do. But at the end of the day, man, a lot of times you saw Thomas Massie on the other side.”
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