Watch: Massie concedes House GOP primary

Massie! Massie! Massie! Massie! Massie! Massie! Massie! All right. I see how this is going to work. I'm going to have to not quit talking, or you'll start doing it. I want to thank my staff too. Some of my staff have been with me from the very first race in 2012. And they have done so much. You know, contrary to all the BS you've heard, we've never had a single ethics complaint filed against me or my staff in 14 years. [CHEERING] I want to thank the donors. Now, listen, I'd name them all, but there's 50,000 donors, OK? [CHEERING] We didn't lose this race because we didn't have enough money. It is the most expensive race ever. I think when they add it up-- right now, they can count $35 million. I think when they add it up, it's going to be a lot more than that. Because on our side, we know we spent more than $15 million. And we were able to go toe to toe. There was never a week that we got outspent more than 2 to 1 in this entire race once it got underway. And that's also-- it wasn't just the grassroots [AUDIO OUT] Surf him over here. A long time, one of my longest friends. He went through a rough spell, and I never left him. I always supported him. And he actually started the super PAC, the one that nobody knows who runs it. Cliff Maloney, if you're around, would you come up here? [CHEERING] Maybe I can get him out here to take some credit. If he's in the crowd, just pick him up, and surf him over here.

Cliff! Cliff! Cliff! Cliff! Cliff! Cliff! Cliff!

Cliff! Cliff! Cliff! Cliff! Cliff! Cliff! By the way, I see one of my online influencer heroes, Bobby Sauce, over here. [CHEERING] There were a lot of surreal moments in this race and, frankly, in being in Congress. But being in a side-by-side, racing through the woods with Bobby Sauce was definitely on my-- it wasn't even on my bucket list. It was amazing. And getting to that point, I want to thank the influencers who came all this way and produced all the videos and got out the young vote. [CHEERING] I want to thank my family. That's who we have arrayed back here, my grandbabies, all three of them. [CHEERING] She's clapping too. It's a little bit overwhelming for them. But they are what recharges my batteries when I come back from Washington DC, these grandbabies. And that's what we're fighting for, really, is the next generation and the next generation after that. [CHEERING] But I have to especially thank my wife, Carolyn. [CHEERING] Her parents knew what they were doing when they named her. Her middle name is Grace. But she's a fighter. She's been tweeted at twice by the chief executive of the most powerful country in the world. She blames me for that because I didn't invite him to the wedding. [CHEERING] But also, she voted this morning. And she came out. And she said, well, that was a wild experience. That was great. I never imagined that would happen. And I said, what happened? She said, I got to vote for my husband and my favorite congressman. I said, that's practically a throuple. [LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE]

You're the best! In all seriousness, walking out here and seeing all of you has really energized me. And it has all along. But why am I hopeful right now? Because if you looked at the cross-tab in the polling-- and I'm sure if we had exit polling, it would show the same thing, we have the younger demographic. We-- [CHEERING]

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! You are patriots, and you will inherit this country. And you will make it better. And I am hopeful because of that. Thank you. [CHEERING] We accidentally, I think-- I accidentally-- I didn't mean to do this. It started out as an election, and it turned into a movement. We-- [CHEERING] Want to bring in Ed O'Keefe, who is at Thomas Massie's headquarters. Ed, as you well know, American traditions and politics, some of them endure. One of them, is when you win, you thank everyone. When you lose, you thank everyone. One new added dimension to a concession speech-- invocation of the word throuple. We'll leave where that is. But when Thomas Massie says he has 50,000 donors and this was a campaign that turned into a movement, I detected in my ear, Ed, at least, the idea that he might think or imagine a political future for him in a post-Trump era, whenever that might be. [CHEERING] Maybe in a post-Trump era. And I've got to say, Major, I've been doing this 20 years. I hadn't heard the T-word used in an election night speech either. So that was new.

Massie! Massie! Massie! He also began by saying that he had some difficulty-- he was joking here. But he said that he'd had some difficulty fighting his opponent, Ed Gallrein, because he was, quote, "in Tel Aviv." He has said this a few times over the course of this primary, because what he is calling out is the fact that there are several wealthy super PACs backed by well-known Republican super PAC donors, like Miriam Adelson, Paul Singer, and others, whose money is often directed towards pro-Israeli causes. And Massie is an opponent of foreign aid. He's an especially strident opponent of continued USAID to Israel. And he argued that the first wave of money that came into this race was from those kinds of groups opposed to his votes on Israel and on foreign aid. And that is why, ultimately-- that plus the president's support is what caused him to lose. But this is a notable defeat for a congressman who had come sort of out of the Tea Party movement, the Rand Paul libertarian wing of the Republican Party that's thrived in years past here in Kentucky, but tonight goes down in what appears to be-- at least, at this hour-- a double-digit defeat.

Ed O'Keefe, thank you very much. I want to bring back Joel Payne and Terry Sullivan. Terry, I had to drop you from commenting on this as it was going on. If you have any other thoughts you want to add after listening to Thomas Massie, please add them. And then, Joel, the stage will be yours. Yeah. Look, he's a good man, and he is obviously losing with some grace and dignity, which is nice to see in politics today. And this is politics. There's a winner. There's a loser. And he's doing it with class. Joel Payne? Yeah. I'm watching with some interest as a Democrat here. There's a couple of things that jump out to me. One, Major, you brought up the point earlier of how much Republicans have spent on Ed. And I tend to agree with Terry's point that there's plenty of money washing around in Republican politics. But I do think it says something that to essentially probably win by-- Anthony could check this-- what, 12,000, 15,000 votes, Donald Trump and his allies had to spend well into the 20s and 30s of millions of dollars to do that. They just, by the way, had to do that in Indiana to punish Republican state senators, spending 10x in a race. This is because Donald Trump and his political entourage, they believe that their strength is by absolute 1,000% fealty from the Republican base. That is the one thing that they cannot lose. And they are showing you that that's the thing that they can't lose by where they spend their dollars and how they're doing it. That does not mean that they are adding to their coalition. And that's one of the reasons why, in 2026, they're not going to end up on the right side of the ballot this November, because they have a base strategy. And a base strategy can't save you in a midterm, particularly when your base is going to be depressed anyway. Donald Trump's strategy here is on display, and I think that that's notable. I think a little bit more broadly-- look, we're talking about Thomas Massie here. Earlier today, Donald Trump made news by endorsing Ken Paxton over John Cornyn. Recently, Bill Cassidy lost in Louisiana. These are all folks who I think the Trump folks will say are not the most loyal. There's going to be a very interesting governing moment for the next four or five, six months in this Congress that is very closely divided. It'll be an interesting job for John Thune to hold that Republican conference together in the Senate, and it'll be an interesting job for Mike Johnson to do the same on the House, because the margins are thin. And essentially, the president is throwing these folks, who are 90-plus percent allies, overboard because they're not 105% allies. And that'll be fine, I guess, in 2027. But for the rest of 2026, when you've got to get your billion-dollar ballroom and you've got to get your billion-dollar slush fund and all the other things that Donald Trump wants to prioritize, when you have to get those things done, not having those allies in Congress who actually have a reason to be loyal to you anymore, will start to show up.

Joel, there was an indicator of that very factor this afternoon. The United States Senate, when there was yet another vote on a War Powers Resolution question, Bill Cassidy, now-defeated Republican senator from Louisiana, had always been voting with the White House, today, he switched, voted for that War Powers Resolution. That was an early indicator that Bill Cassidy may no longer be on the Trumpian reservation, having now been defeated at the hands of the president.