Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky fired back after Vice President JD Vance criticized the lawmaker for constantly bucking their party.
Vance spoke at the University of Mississippi Wednesday night to continue the Turning Point USA’s college campus tour following Charlie Kirk’s assassination. In remembrance of Kirk, Vance opened the floor to thousands of students to ask questions.
‘You’re eventually going to make too many enemies.’
One attendee asked Vance why President Donald Trump went after Massie, raising concerns that this conflict would discourage independent thinking within the Republican Party.
“This one is hard for me,” Vance said. “And the reason it’s hard for me is because Thomas Massie and I — he’s one of the first people that ever reached out to me about my book or about political office. I’ve known Thomas Massie well before I ever got involved in politics.”
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“I think the problem with Thomas — and I’ve told him this in private, and now I guess I’ll say it again in public — is it’s one thing to disagree with the party on a particular issue,” Vance added. “It’s one thing to have your independent stand on a number of questions — and by the way, some of this stuff where Thomas Massie has been independent from the Republican Party, I’ve agreed with.”
Vance went on to argue that despite their friendship, Massie’s ideological stubbornness, no matter how principled, has cost him the president’s support.
“Being independent, having your own opinions is one thing,” Vance said. “Voting against the party on every single issue, you’re eventually going to make too many enemies. And that is the problem that Thomas has had. 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.”
“Politics is politics,” Vance added. “And when you always vote against the party, you can’t expect the party to actually back it.”
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Massie argued that if the party demands total compliance on every vote and leaves no room for debate, it risks alienating many voters who may not check every policy box on the party platform. Massie also did not shy away from calling out the party’s policies he objected to, saying he “won’t be their yes man.”
“The lady at TPUSA last night addressed an issue many young Republicans have with our party today,” Massie said of the attendee who approached Vance. “90% of my votes align with the Republican platform, yet there seems to be no room for dissent or debate. Our tent shrinks if party leaders demand 100% compliance.”
“When leaders of my own party protect sex traffickers, spend our grandkids into oblivion, fund endless wars, lockdown our citizens, bailout corporations, bow to other countries, and hurt small farmers … it’s true that I won’t be their yes man,” Massie said in a post on X.
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