{"id":19991,"date":"2025-10-26T17:02:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T17:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=19991"},"modified":"2025-10-26T17:02:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T17:02:48","slug":"rand-paul-vows-support-for-thomas-massie-over-trump-backed-candidate-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=19991","title":{"rendered":"Rand Paul Vows Support For Thomas Massie Over Trump-Backed Candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) announced that he will support his fellow libertarian-leaning colleague, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), in his upcoming primary race against a challenger endorsed by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

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Trump threw his support last week behind Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL and outspoken loyalist, after calling for a 2026 primary challenge to Massie. The congressman has repeatedly pressed the administration to release all remaining files related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, Fox News reported.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of pages of Epstein files\u00a0have been released<\/a>, however.<\/p>\n

Massie has frequently broken with Trump and GOP leadership on key issues, including voting against the president\u2019s summer spending bill and asserting that Trump must obtain congressional authorization before engaging in military action.<\/p>\n

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Paul, who has taken similar positions, also opposed the spending measure in the Senate and has criticized the administration for conducting military strikes without approval from Congress.<\/p>\n

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Paul is now endorsing Massie\u2019s re-election campaign and is committed to helping him retain his House seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThomas Massie is going to win,\u201d Paul told POLITICO. \u201cI\u2019m going to help him. I\u2019m going to be with him every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul described Massie as an \u201cindependent voice\u201d within the Republican Party, noting his frequent breaks with GOP leadership. However, he emphasized that both he and Massie still back President Trump\u2019s agenda \u201csignificantly more\u201d than many other Republicans who have sought to align themselves closely with the president.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe people who\u2019ve gotten close to him who want regime change in Venezuela and want to send more advanced weaponry to Ukraine, those are the interventionists from the interventionist wing of the party who have never been the ones really closely allied,\u201d Paul said. \u201cThese are the people who have always opposed Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul said he and Massie will continue to push for \u201cenumerated powers\u201d as well as \u201cbalanced budgets, low taxes and less foreign war.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kentucky senator warned that Trump\u2019s decision to single out Massie should concern all Republican lawmakers, emphasizing that taking positions contrary to the president\u2019s agenda could carry political repercussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a warning sign,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2018Oppose me or any of my policies, and I\u2019ll come after you.\u2019 And I don\u2019t think that\u2019s good for the Republican Party, nor do I think it\u2019s good for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senator added that he is frustrated with being treated as the Republican Party\u2019s \u201cwhipping boy,\u201d saying many of his colleagues rely on him \u201cto do their job for them\u201d when they are unwilling to tell Trump that his nominees lack sufficient support in the Senate,\u00a0Fox News reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say, \u2018Oh, well, you\u2019re not afraid of the president. You go tell him his nominee can\u2019t make it,’\u201d Paul said. \u201cSo, I\u2019m just tired of always being the whipping boy. I\u2019m tired of [being] the only one that has any guts to stand up and tell the president the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Paul has also faced criticism from President Trump in recent months but has continued to stand his ground. Most recently, he has spoken out against the administration\u2019s military strikes on boats it claims\u2014based on intelligence\u2014were carrying narco-terrorists.<\/p>\n

The senator expressed concern over the lack of due process and the potential for innocent people to be killed in such operations. He pointed to Coast Guard data indicating that a significant percentage of vessels boarded on suspicion of drug trafficking turn out to be innocent.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Paul disclosed that he had not been invited to a White House luncheon with other Republican senators, reportedly due to his ongoing disagreements with President Trump. He noted, however, that he already had a \u201cLiberty Caucus Lunch\u201d scheduled with Rep. Thomas Massie at the same time.<\/p>\n

Paul recently campaigned alongside Massie and said he intends to join him again on the campaign trail in the near future, Fox added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0Getty Images This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) announced that he will support his fellow libertarian-leaning colleague, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), in … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19992,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19991\/revisions\/19992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}