Trump Slams “Grandstanding” Rep. Massie As Kentucky Republican Threatens To Delay Vote

Update (1002ET): Speaker Pelosi jut told reporters that the House will hold the vote on Friday…come hell or high water…as the vote will likely be extended to three hours, and then the house will vote in about 2 hours time.

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The market has barely been open for half an hour, and Friday has already been a wild day, even by the standards of a particularly wild time. Boris Johnson has the coronavirus, as do roughly half a million other people around the world.  More than 20,000 have died from it. And now, President Trump has started a twitter feud with a Republican Congressman from Kentucky who is threatening to hold up the stimulus bill – the third installment of the federal government’s response to the crisis – because…well…it’s not exactly clear why.

Though it’s notable that Fox News just published this piece that’s essentially 2,000+ words of anonymously sourced aides saying things like “he better not!” and “oh yeah he’s gonna do it!” and “he received a very stern call from the leader…”.

Apparently, none of this has dissuaded Massie, and both leaders are calling up members to get on planes and come back to Washington so there can be a quorom vote. The best Massie can do is delay the vote a day.

Again, it’s not exactly clear why Massie wants to delay the bill, though some have expressed concerns that it contains too much “wasteful” spending, and we’ve even derided the excessive amounts of “pork” in the package. But at this point, something is clearly better than nothing, and that pork spending is still money that will eventually be spent on…something.

Still, any attempt to disrupt President Trump’s plan – especially after all that time he spent bashing Pelosi for stalling – is a big no-no, and President Trump came out swinging on Twitter, accusing Massie of “grandstanding.”

…& costly. Workers & small businesses need money now in order to survive. Virus wasn’t their fault. It is “HELL” dealing with the Dems, had to give up some stupid things in order to get the “big picture” done. 90% GREAT! WIN BACK HOUSE, but throw Massie out of Republican Party!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020

Massie hasn’t tweeted recently, but his last tweet criticized the Senate for stripping away House text and subbing in their own bill into the shell.

The senate did some voodoo just like with Obamacare. Took a House Bill (HR 748) dealing with taxes, stripped every word, and put their bill in it. The House is just as responsible for killing the origination clause as the Senate. It’s the House’s job to reject the process. pic.twitter.com/BiGcmAwJS6

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 26, 2020

If Massie keeps this up, he might walk away with a nickname…