The Republican Who Dared to Break the Silence on Epstein

He stands with the survivors. His party stands with Trump.

Sometimes it takes just one person to show you how deep the rot really goes. That person, right now, is U.S. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Massie is no liberal hero. He’s a libertarian-minded Republican who has spent more than a decade in Congress voting against big spending, bucking leadership, and priding himself on independence. But he’s also the only Republican with the backbone to lead the fight to force the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

And for that, Donald Trump wants him gone. Speaker Mike Johnson put it bluntly:

“He is actively working against his team almost daily now and seems to enjoy that role. So he is deciding his own fate.”

Translation: Break from Trump on Epstein, and you’re on your own.

Johnson has gone even further to shield Trump, bizarrely claiming the president once acted as an FBI informant against Epstein, a statement he quietly retreated from after withering criticism. And it’s no coincidence. Yesterday’s release of Epstein’s “birthday book,” featuring Trump’s own disgusting and crude doodle, makes his denials louder and more desperate. Expect him to double down on the fact that it’s all lies, and expect his party to fall in line.

This week, CNN confirmed what insiders have whispered for months: Trump and his advisers are plotting an aggressive push to oust Massie in the 2026 primary. A pro-Trump super PAC is already reserving millions in ads. Trump has even auditioned potential challengers, including a former Navy SEAL in Kentucky, to take him out. The kicker: House GOP leaders have made clear they won’t lift a finger to help him survive.

Ask yourself: what does it reveal about someone’s character if they agree to be that candidate, the chosen weapon in Trump’s vendetta? Military service is honorable. But using that badge to bury accountability and crush transparency on Epstein is not honor–it’s complicity. And if they’re willing to play that role now, what hope is there that they’ll stand with victims later?

Massie has become something rare in today’s Republican Party: a conscience. On ABC’s This Week, he put it bluntly: “We can’t avoid justice just to avoid embarrassment for some very powerful men.” That’s not the language of a party loyalist, it’s the language of someone willing to risk exile by standing with survivors. In a rare partnership, Massie and U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) are driving a bipartisan petition that already has the votes to force the release of the Epstein files. Khanna called it what it is: “a moral issue… about standing with survivors, about protecting children.”

In a GOP defined by silence and obedience, Massie has chosen to be the outlier. Instead of standing with survivors, Trump and GOP leaders are once again preparing to purge one of their own, not because he’s wrong, but because he’s inconvenient. Massie has survived challengers before in his Kentucky district, but Trump’s political machine is different. This isn’t just another primary fight, it’s part of a pattern where the price of honesty is exile. If he falls, it will send a clear message: no Republican is allowed to tell the truth about Epstein, or anything else for that matter. If he survives, it proves there’s still oxygen, however thin, for conscience inside the GOP. I, for one, hope he does, not for his sake alone, but for the sake of our country.

Either way, his race is the canary in the coal mine. It tells you everything you need to know about where the Republican Party stands: with Trump, with power, and with cover-ups, not with the truth.

Until next time,

Olivia