History can happen in empty rooms. On Tuesday afternoon, Thomas Massie stood at the lectern in the US House chamber as, at 4.30pm, the reading clerk began the lengthy task of calling out, word for word, the eight articles of impeachment Massie had drafted against war secretary Pete Hegseth.
The ornate room was disconcertingly silent: hundreds of empty brown leather seats. Given that Hegseth had held a morning press conference to strenuously defend his record, the moment was underwhelming in atmosphere. Massie was one of just three lawmakers on the floor. He wore a three-piece pinstripe suit, with the waistcoat a different shade, and he leafed through his notes, looking like a guest at the wedding who is beginning to think he’s turned up at the wrong venue.
Massie sat alone as the articles were read out. Sometimes, he scanned his phone or paced the floor. He had, for company, a handful of journalists in the press gallery and, in the visitor gallery, student groups visiting for the day.
The reading took about an hour. At around 5.30pm, the chamber filled up quickly as House representatives, Republican and Democratic alike, entered and voted electronically. They chattered animatedly as a vote, tabled by the Republican Party and open for 15 minutes, to move Massie’s articles to committee – where they would be shelved, perpetually – was quickly tallied.
RM Block
It passed by 211 to 204. Massie was the only Republican to vote against.
A member of Congress since 2012, this afternoon was one of his last big occasions in the House chamber – and certainly his loneliest. Even though the national unpopularity of the Iran war was identified as the chief cause of the midterm election revolt that cost the Republicans control of both House and Senate, not one of his colleagues was prepared to put a hand up to support his impeachment bid.
“Well, I mean I’ve completed my effort,” Massie said afterwards as he stood in the corridor outside the chamber.
“My analogy here is that the Titanic hit the iceberg on November 3rd and I offered people a life raft and they said: ‘no thanks, we’ll stick with the Titanic.’ They know it’s a sinking ship, and they committed to stay on board. They diagnosed why they lost the election but tonight they were paralysed to do anything about it.
“And that’s the story of Congress. Everybody knows that we are spending too much money, but they are paralysed here to cut the money. These people know what to do, they just can’t bring themselves to do it – even when it would benefit them politically.
“It is also a test of, are they still under the spell of Trump and his circle of people, whether it is paid influencers online or the campaign consultants that act as a mafia. They are still entranced by Trump. They would have done better tonight to put some daylight between themselves and this administration and the war and Iran, and they took a pass.”
Even as Massie gathered his thoughts, president Donald Trump was putting the final gloss on his inevitable social media post gloating over the Kentuckian’s failed effort: “The Democrats’ attempt to impeach secretary of war Pete Hegseth has miserably failed. Every single Republican, except Thomas Massie, a major loser, voted in favour of Pete.”
The moment marked one of the closing chapters in Massie’s contentious relationship with his president. He will be remembered as an odd fish in this 119th Congress in that he has remained cheerfully fearless in his opposition to key Trump positions and policies, a stance that has cut him adrift from his colleagues. A fiscal hawk, pro-Maha, America First ideologue, Massie is deeply opposed to American involvement – and financial aid – in foreign wars.
In his first term in Congress, he gained the moniker “Mr No” as he voted against measures ranging from a congressional gold medal for golf legend Jack Nicklaus to economic sanctions on North Korea.
But in Trump’s second term, absolute fealty was expected. Massie voted in opposition to government funding Bills, criticised the Trump tariff policy as a folly and also opposed the only piece of congressional legislation Trump cared about: the mammoth One Big Beautiful Bill.
Those transgressions were enough to make him a nuisance, but his unlikely alliance with Democratic representative Ro Khanna to force the release of the Epstein files placed him in outright enemy status. Trump warned that he would “primary” Massie, and did, recruiting Ed Gallrein, a former navy seal, to run against Massie in his primary congressional election in May.
Some $30 million was spent in discrediting the incumbent in what became the most expensive congressional primary election in US history. Massie hoped that his 14 years of constituency work would overcome Maga Trump loyalty. He lost but remained unrepentant and is now spending his closing months in office making it his business to vex Trump.
“I wasn’t surprised, but I was disappointed,” he said of the failure of any other Republican to vote with him.
“I mean, I didn’t whip this. Sometimes I come to the floor and there’s ten people locked in arms [as if] we’re gonna do this, we are going take this hill. And then nine of them disappear and I’m the only one left. That wasn’t the case tonight. I never had anyone come up and say: ‘I’m with you all the way.’”
By Wednesday evening, Massie and Khanna had finally acquired the 218 signatures needed to force another House vote on full release of the Epstein files. Four Republicans signed it: Massie; Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman of South Carolina, both of whom are leaving Congress; and Brian Fitzpatrick, who lost his re-election bid in Pennsylvania’s first district.
The petition was, House speaker Mike Johnson declared on Thursday, another example of “Thomas Massie trying to get attention again, as he has demonstrated in recent days – and as he’s told some members, he is just trying to cause chaos on the way out. The DOJ [department of justice] has already committed to full disclosure. If there is more to come out, we are in favour of that. We always handled this with care to protect victims and get the information out to the public. You have to do both of those things. Thomas Massie has never given a darn about that. By his own admission, he didn’t care if names of victims were exposed. When I addressed that with him, he was pretty transparent about it.”
Massie has been vociferous in his conviction that a host of unnamed accomplices of Epstein’s need to be “perp walked” towards justice and has accused the department of justice of using victim protection as a shield.
Irrespective of the outcome of the Epstein vote, and three war resolutions he has vowed to introduce before he leaves Washington, Massie will at least be remembered as one of the very few Republican lawmakers who dared to defy Trump during this long era of slavish obedience. It cost him his seat but, at 56, he has time to alchemise that integrity into a second political life if he so chooses.
Still, he cut a lonely figure as he stood in the gleaming corridor in the Capitol, as newly elected House representatives headed for a wine reception hosted by the Democrats. By that time of the evening, the vast, baroque interior of the building was almost deserted.
Before Massie left, a newly elected congressman introduced himself. He told Massie he wished he’d had an opportunity to serve together, and that he had admired his work.
Massie has already said that he is weighing up numerous offers as to what he might do in the future.
“I haven’t ruled anything out,” he said, “except coming back here”.
