‘Buckle up’: Massie pops up on DeSantis’ Twitter presidential launch, heaps praise on Musk
Rep. Thomas Massie, the second member of Congress to endorse Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid, appeared on Twitter Spaces Wednesday evening as part of the Florida governor’s online rollout to the country.
It’s yet another indication of the increasingly prominent role Massie is taking in DeSantis’ 2024 White House run.
During a friendly question-and-answer session that included a handful of DeSantis supporters, Massie – who served with DeSantis for six years during the governor’s congressional tenure – nudged him to support the Reins Act, the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny Act.
“Oh yeah, of course, That’s a no brainer. That would be a good check,” DeSantis told Massie.
The Republican backed legislation would reassert Congress’ legislative authority in the federal rulemaking process by requiring that rules proposed by federal agencies win approval by both the House and Senate before going into effect.
Massie complained that Congress has largely been “feckless” at reining in the directives of federal agencies, which enjoy broad leeway in their implementation of new laws and rules if legislation doesn’t clearly state directives or leaves questions unaddressed in its law-making.
“Buckle up when I get in there, because the status quo is not acceptable. We are going to make sure that we re-constitutionalize this government,” DeSantis answered Massie during the Twitter Spaces event that drew about 260,000 listeners after technical problems took down the first attempt. “These agencies are totally out of control. There’s no accountability. And we are going to bring that in a very big way.”
DeSantis said Congress has been weak in employing its two main powers: the power of the purse to allocate spending levels for agencies and precise legislative writing in order to avoid delegating decisions to the broad federal bureaucracy.
“They’re not entitled to get the same level every year and yet Congress runs the government on autopilot, either continuing resolutions or massive omnibus spending bills. So these agencies are all bulletproof. They know that they’re going to end up getting something similar or more every single year and it creates an incentive for them to abuse their power,” DeSantis said.
He added, “All they should be doing is implementing. Instead, Congress will basically give an invitation for the bureaucracy to make really important substantive decisions.”
DeSantis is widely assumed to be the most formidable opponent to former President Donald Trump, who begins the 2024 cycle as the strong Republican front-runner for the nomination.
But DeSantis is partially betting on his wonky policy chops to draw voters away from Trump, presenting himself as better equipped to take on President Joe Biden in a general election.
A May Emerson College survey found Trump with a colossal lead over DeSantis, 70% to 14% in a potential match-up in Kentucky. Trump enjoys about a 33-point advantage over DeSantis nationally and is about 20 points ahead of the governor in the early nominating states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
Before Massie engaged with DeSantis on Twitter Spaces – an audio-only platform for large-scale conversations on Twitter – the Kentucky Republican heaped praise on Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner and the world’s richest man.
“I’ve never met Elon Musk but I’m one of your biggest fans. I’m the first congressman to have a Tesla. I’m on Starlink and I would’ve bought a powerwall but I’m off the grid. You wouldn’t sell me one so I had to make one,” Massie told Musk. “It’s been running our house for five years.”
In a remark that conveyed DeSantis’ Washington friendship with Massie, the governor chimed in: “Just for the record, I was with Thomas our first year in Congress. He’s got the Tesla but his license plate is ‘Kentucky Coal’ so he’s probably one of the only people who have that.”
“That’s for outing me Gov. DeSantis,” Massie replied genially.
This story was originally published May 25, 2023 at 10:15 AM with the headline "‘Buckle up’: Massie pops up on DeSantis’ Twitter presidential launch, heaps praise on Musk."
