As a Kentuckian, it's embarrassing enough being a constituent of Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell most days, but the fact that Rep. Thomas Massie makes northern Kentucky look like a bunch of meatheads too is really piling abuse upon abuse here. Massie's latest massive gaffe on the national stage came courtesy of CNN yesterday as my congressman happily explained to Kate Bolduan that he didn't think Bashar al-Assad was responsible for this week's ruthless chemical weapons attack in Syria somehow, a fact that even the notoriously fact-averse Trump regime seems to recognize.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie expressed doubt Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is responsible for Tuesday's chemical attack, and reinforced his stance that US intervention could "end up making the situation worse."
Speaking on CNN's "At This Hour" with Kate Bolduan, the Kentucky lawmaker told the host that he didn't think the Syrian leader launched the attack, and that further intervention by the US government may aggravate the situation.
"Frankly, I don't think Assad would have done that," Massie said. "It does not serve his interests."
Dozens of people -- including at least 10 children -- died, and more than 200 people were injured in a suspected chemical weapons attack in northern Syria Tuesday. Activist groups and some US officials have attributed the tragedy to Assad and his regime, including President Donald Trump who cited Assad's administration Wednesday.
When a visibly stunned Bolduan pressed Massie on who -- if not Assad -- may be responsible for the attack, Massie seemed to suggest that the incident could have been unintentional.
"You've got a war going on over there," Massie said. "Supposedly that airstrike was on an ammo dump, and so I don't know if it was released because there was gas stored in the ammo dump or not -- that's plausible."
If that theory sounds familiar, it's because that's the line both the Asaad regime and Moscow are taking on this, that Russian airstrikes on a "rebel-held chemical weapons factory" accidentally released the weapons into the surrounding area. It's one thing to hear such an obvious lie coming from Putin. It's quite another to hear the lie coming from your own Representative in Congress.
Massie needs to go, folks. I don't know if anyone's filed to run against him yet, but when they do, I'm volunteering for campaign help.