Congressional Debate on Midterm Elections

Mr. Speaker, Thomas Massie-

Says this guy-

Mr. Speaker, Thomas Massie is now alleging that you are going to

hold the House in recess until after the midterm elections due to the

Epstein Files Transparency Act II.

So, so let me tell you how stupid Thomas

Massie's comment is.

If he would come to our House Republican conference meetings as we had this

morning, he would've heard me say privately as I've

said publicly, Republicans are

here to work. We have a schedule, a calendar that's been out for a year.

We are abiding by that calendar. I, I, we are going to work all the way

through September and every day that's on the calendar,

so long as people

like him don't stop the progress. So that is a nonsensical statement by

someone who is not participating as a full member of the, of the Congress, and

it- it's really sad that he doesn't.

Question on the debt ceiling.

Your reaction, Congressman.

Well, uh, I could show you a bunch of clips of

things that Mike Johnson

has said absolutely m- are positively true, and then

they aren't true.

Uh, I'm glad to hear that he says we're gonna stay here.

That gives me time to get 218 signatures.

We're, we're collecting them. Uh, we've already got dozens

already. We need to get to 218, so that's good.

But I heard him say, "Unless he stops progress." Now,

what's his view

of stopping progress? Progress to him is a,

making a political statement up here every day in order to

put the Republican Party ahead in the midterms, not

to actually get anything done. So if I start

making real progress and they don't see a

political advantage from their fake messaging bills,

he may say that I've stopped pro- their kind of progress,

and he could call it off. He also might be talking about other

members of

Congress who would be voting to take down rules.

He's had a hard time... A rule is the resolution you have to pass before

you

get the bill passed, and those are usually party line votes, and he's

had a hard time getting those passed.

He called us off for, uh, two or three weeks this summer.

He took days off the calendar, where I'm sure he thought we were gonna be

working, and he sent us home early because he

couldn't get

things passed on the floor. And he can't attribute that to me.

Look, I'm here to get stuff done. I wanna get Epstein Files Transparency Act

Part 2 done, and, uh, that would be a big win.

House Republicans are

leaving Washington early to focus full time

on the midterm elections. Today, Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP

leadership canceled two scheduled voting weeks in

September, sending lawmakers back to their home

districts ahead

of November.

The early exit follows passage of a continuing resolution

that keeps the federal

government funded through December 11th, averting an October

shutdown. The decision gives vulnerable incumbents

more time on the

campaign trail while sidestepping contentious floor votes in

the run-up to Election Day.