U.S. Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) speaks to reporters as Republican lawmakers struggle to pass U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping spending and tax bill, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 27, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Early Thursday morning, July 3 — as House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) was laying out one reason after another why he considers President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" a terrible piece of legislation — MSNBC reported that the megabill would soon be coming up for a full House vote and that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) had secured enough votes to get it passed.
After the bill narrowly passed in the U.S. Senate, 51-50, Trump did everything he could to pressure House Republicans into voting "yes" as well. And according to Mychael Schnell and Mike Lillis, reporters for The Hill, that included a phone conversation in the wee hours with GOP lawmakers who were holdouts.
Schnell and Lillis report, "The phone call — which took place around 1 a.m. as holdouts huddled in a room off the House floor — came as a key procedural vote for the megabill remained open for almost four hours, with hardline conservatives and one moderate Republican hampering the legislation from moving forward. As of 2 a.m. on Thursday, the vote was 207 to 217, with five Republicans having voted 'no' and eight withholding their support. The combination has threatened to tank the rule, since Democrats are united against it, and a vote on the final package can't proceed without that rule."
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The GOP holdouts in the House, according to Schnell and Lillis, included Kentucky's Thomas Massie, Indiana's Victoria Spartz, and Indiana's Tim Burchett.
"During the conversation," the reporters explain, "Massie — who has been at odds with Trump over the megabill for weeks — suggested he was ready to drop his opposition and support the rule if Trump stops attacking him, The Hill has learned…. Trump and those in his orbit have gone after Massie in recent months after the Kentucky Republican voted against the House version of the megabill in May, and said the president's strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities were 'not constitutional.'"
The journalists add, "A Trump-aligned super PAC, led by the president’s 2024 co-campaign manager, has rolled out ads bashing Massie as those in Trump World vow a primary challenger."
As the House vote was drawing closer on Thursday morning, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a centrist Democrat, appeared on MSNBC and said of the bill, "This is a huge betrayal…. A lot of jobs are going to be lost."
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Read The Hill's full article at this link.