On July 18, 2023 Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky participated in a Twitter Space hosted by Josie Glabach (“The Red Headed Libertarian”) where he formally endorsed the Defend the Guard Act. The inciting question was asked by Liam McCollum, an activist in Montana and regular volunteer for Bring Our Troops Home.
Thomas Massie has served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Kentucky’s 4th District since 2012. He is the second sitting member of the House to endorse the bill, following Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona.
You can read his complete statement below, or listen to a clip of the Twitter Space here.
“I have heard of it, and I love it. I’ve heard from some states, I actually had a legislator, a state senator, call me. One of the problems he said they have with passing this legislation is they get it to the floor [and] that some general will come in and testify and lobby in his uniform and intimidate the legislators. And then they’ll say, ‘Oh your Guard won’t get as much money in your state if you do that. And we’ll shut down this military contractor here,’ and they go around, and not everybody falls for it, but a lot of them do. In fact, my Chief of Staff, Matt Gurtler, was a former Georgia state legislator. And he says they did that to them in Georgia. They tried to do it to him; I’m sure he didn’t go for the pressure campaign. So, the question this state senator had for me is there any way I can help? And there may be some way, where we can bring this up in a hearing or something, or send a letter to [the] military, kind of brush them back from this pressure campaign where they threaten—maybe not explicitly but implicitly—and then scare all the state legislators against voting for it. But I love the legislation.”
