In a sprawling road trip Wednesday around Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul provided updates on what’s happening in Washington and answered myriad questions from constituents.

“There was no rhetoric in here, there was nobody screaming,” Massie said outside the Robertson County Community Center, the pair’s third of six stops of the day. “We really want to show that you can still go out and mix with people and be safe. It’s still a world worth interacting with, and we have to, in our jobs. We can’t stay in the office and do this remote.”

The Fourth District crosses much of Northern Kentucky, where many counties line the Ohio River. Massie, a member of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, spent much of his time during the Wednesday visits to Maysville and Mount Olivet talking about the importance of the role of waterways to interstate commerce.

“I hate spending money. But if there’s one place that government should be spending money, it’s on infrastructure,” Massie said.

The tour also included stops in Wurtland, Cynthiana, Dry Ridge and Burlington. The pair will make two more stops Thursday in La Grange and Shelbyville.

On releasing the Epstein files

Massie, who also sits on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, has, alongside House Oversight Committee Chair Kentucky Rep. James Comer, pushed for the release of files related to the federal investigation of convicted sex offender and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The files may include a list of Epstein’s connections with politicians, bankers and other powerful people.

Following a special election in Arizona on Tuesday where both candidates said they would support Massie’s discharge petition to release the files, Massie said he has all 218 votes he needs for the petition to pass.

A discharge position is a procedure often followed in the House of Representatives to bring something directly to the floor for a vote instead of weaving through committee. Democrat Adelita Grijalva won the special election in Arizona for her late father’s seat.

“The vote could happen as soon as mid-October, and at that point, the speaker has a choice,” Massie said. “The Speaker of the House (Mike Johnson), so far, he’s been trying to keep people from supporting my discharge petition.

“But now that it’s a vote, he has a choice between releasing the conference to vote their conscience and the will of their constituents, which would be for transparency and justice. Or, he can try to hold them all captive, all the Republicans in the House, and make them walk the plank to do the wrong thing politically, but also to do the wrong thing for the victims and the survivors.”

Massie on running for Senate, for president

Last week, Massie said he thinks he could win the race for retiring U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s seat, especially if former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron drops out of the race in favor of running for Massie’s seat in the House.

Cameron’s campaign and President Donald Trump have repeatedly denied the possibility of Cameron switching races, and Massie noted that he thinks Cameron is the favorite to win the Senate race.

“What my polling shows is that Daniel Cameron is winning the Senate race,” Massie said. “So, that was probably wishful thinking on the part of his opponents, and maybe they were trying to get that started. But Daniel Cameron and his wife are constituents of mine, and I’m proud to represent them in Congress.

“I kind of lightheartedly said if he (Cameron) gets in the House race, I can get in the Senate race,” Massie continued. “My polling actually shows that I would be the front-runner in that Senate race with the other two candidates. They may have more resources and that may not be how it ends, but I’m going to keep all of my degrees of freedom open until January. But I am signing up to run for the House of Representatives.”

And while he said he was encouraged by nationwide polling that showed voters saw Massie favorably, he said he likely won’t seek higher office.

“No, I would not run for president,” Massie said. “I was there with Rand (in 2016), I was there with Ron DeSantis (in 2024). ... I think some people think they do it for fun. Rand did it for the right principles, but there is no fun in that race.”

On Trump’s claims connecting Tylenol to autism

At the White House on Monday, Trump promoted unproven ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism. He told pregnant women more than a dozen times during a news conference not to take Tylenol during their pregnancy, and then falsely said ingredients in infant vaccines, and the timing of when they’re administered, are causing in increase in autism diagnoses.

Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. provided no new medical evidence showing direct links between drugs, vaccines and the brain disorder.

Paul, a graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine and a practicing eye doctor in Bowling Green before taking office, said if there is a study that showed a direct cause and effect, that would be reason for pause. He said some studies show there might be a possible link, but the science isn’t certain.

“I think there is some evidence,” Paul said. “I’m not sure I would express it exactly the same way.

“But I’m also worried about people who hate Donald Trump so much that they’re all over TikTok, pregnant women going, ‘Watch me, I’m taking Tylenol and not listening to the president.’ Usually, the best advice when you’re pregnant is to try to avoid all drugs, both illegal and legal. You want to put as little into the system of the baby as you can.”

On the size of government spending

Paul continued to express dissatisfaction with the country’s spending bills. Since this summer, when the Trump-backed “Big, Beautiful Bill” passed, Paul has said that it, as well as other pieces of legislation, contain excessive amounts of spending that worsen the national debt.

“Almost every problem you can conceive of, we’ve already done something for it,” Paul said. “We should look back and see whether it works or not. ... We have programs that were authorized 20 years ago and have never been reauthorized. I have a bill that says if it hasn’t been reauthorized, it ends.”

Massie is of the same fiscal conservatism mindset and wears an electronic ticker on his suit jacket lapel that displays the national debt in real time. He took it off Wednesday in Mt. Olivet and passed it around the room.

“One of the things I’m most passionate about, because this affects every aspect of your lives, is spending and overspending and the debt and the deficit,” Massie said. “That’s why I designed this,” he said, pointing to the debt counter. “I built it to try to induce a sense of anxiety or urgency among my colleagues about the deficit spending.”

On Charlie Kirk, cancel culture

While speaking Sept. 10 at a college campus in Utah, Charlie Kirk, a conservative advocate who founded Turning Point USA, was fatally shot while conducting one of his signature events, Prove Me Wrong.

Kirk, 31, was mourned across the country, as condemnations of political violence rang out. Conservative commentators also combed through social media for posts that were critical of Kirk, and reported the posts to their respective employers.

The fallout reached a fever pitch last week when “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was taken off the air amid pressure from Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Carr suggested his agency could take action against ABC and its parent company, Disney, prompting some pushback from lawmakers including Paul.

“I think there’s a difference between policy directives coming from the government and policy directives coming from a private corporation,” Paul said. “If I’m friends with someone and they thought it was funny that Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I would shun them. I have the right as an individual to no longer associate with them.

“If they worked for me, I would fire them, because I think that tolerating or advocating for someone’s death is just reprehensible. But you do have the right to say reprehensible things under the First Amendment, and the government can’t dictate that.”

The show returned to airwaves Tuesday night.

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