FRANKFORT, Ky. — The primary election is on June 23 Spectrum News 1’s Political Reporter Michon Lindstrom sat down with Todd McMurtry who hopes to unseat four term Congressman Thomas Massie in the Republican primary for the 4th Congressional District.
Q. We are in the final week of the campaign how are you feeling?
A. It's been an exciting experience, I've enjoyed the process of campaigning, I'm very happy that we've been able to bring a positive message about my opponents record of failure to voters in Kentucky. He's kind of gotten a free ride for the past eight years and Washington hasn't told people how he votes. The fact that he's one of the congressmen most likely to vote against President Trump. The fact that he's the least, if not one of just a handful, of the least effective members of Congress on the, on the Republican side. That really he's doing nothing for, so I do know that we've gotten that message out to, you know, thousands and thousands of people in Kentucky. And I think we've, it's a win no matter the outcome.
Q. I did see poll I believe yesterday that your name ID is up but it still shows that he has an advantage What is your message and why do you think that you would serve Republican Party better than Thomas Massie?
A. The message for me is, is that I am a reliable conservative I intend to support the president, unlike my opponent. I intend to gain influence in the House of Representatives by working with my colleagues versus working against them. You don't get to be the least effective member of Congress in Washington, by working with your colleagues you get it by working against them. I would use the same type of skills that I've developed in my nearly 30 years practicing law to gain influence to be a good advocate, good negotiator, good mediator of problems. I think my track record of success and working on cases like the Nick Sandmann case, representing cities and counties here in the Northern Kentucky region, and handling litigation for people like Candace Owens and other prominent people on the national stage shows that I have proven myself to be an effective advocate and I'd like to be an effective advocate for the people of Kentucky in Washington.
Q. This is one of the most expensive Republican primaries that Kentucky has seen, your opponent Thomas Massie he spent over $1 million in this campaign and a lot of those are on attack ads against you and really trying to bring up past tweets about President Trump and while you're saying he votes against Trump these ads are saying that you are a ’never Trumper’.
A. Yeah when you've got my record, 30 years, no dings, no knocks, you know only success, a successful family, a successful marriage you really have to go back and pick out some Facebook or Twitter posts from years ago as a means to attack because basically I've had an exemplary career, and that's all he's got and he spent you’re right a million dollars attacking me over some things that were really taken out of context and not accurate. Like a lot of people in Kentucky when the President was first elected. I wasn't sure he was going to govern as a conservative, and I did say some of those negative things, back in 2017, but it didn't take me long to realize that I was wrong. I've admitted that I was wrong about my early judgement of the president. I did endorse and endorse him publicly on social media and vote for him in 2016 but after a few months in office I realized that he was going to govern as a conservative, and I think he's done a great job. His record, his policies are good for Kentucky, good for the nation. And so, from that early time period to today I've been a very strong supporter of the President.
Q. There are also some other tweets that Thomas Massie has highlighted that may have had some racial undertones do you regret those tweets?
A. You know those tweets were taken out of context, they're really the tweets are about two topics: one illegal immigration and two the fact that I fight so hard for my client Nicolas Sandmann against the media and against the mainstream media attacks on on people like Nicolas and others that we see all the time. You know the media has an agenda, the left has an agenda, and what they would like to do. Frankly, representing people like Candace Owens and Nicolas Sandmann makes me one of the people on the front lines of arguing for the conservative agenda and my opponent tried to use the tactics of the left in an effort to cancel me but I'm beyond cancellation. I have my own business, I have my friends and family who loved me. I cannot be canceled by those those comments but I never intended to make anything, any racist type comments. I intended to make comments that were questioning our immigration policies, unlike my opponent who did not support President Trump's efforts to build the wall and actually voted against his request for emergency funding. I think we need to build the wall and I would always vote for funding to build the wall. But I also think we need lots of good legal immigration because we need to bring people who love our country who are going to work hard, that are going to build businesses and make us an even greater nation come in and join us and a perfect example of that is, I was in San Francisco last year going to a conference, and while I was there I got an Uber ride from a fellow that had just immigrated from Africa and this guy could not have been more enthusiastic about being in this country, a young man, married with a young child, working extra hard to be successful and I thought, people like this are the people that make this country so great. So, to try to cancel me and characterize me as a racist is just pathetic attempt to cancel 30 years of success, 30 years of building a business, 30 years of being married to a woman from Puerto Rico, 30 years of raising my children in a bilingual household, it's absurd.
Q. How do you feel that Thomas Massie has responded to the coronavirus pandemic he was one of the only people to vote against the coronavirus relief bill?
A. Yeah, well that got him condemned by the president, the president said throw him out of the Republican Party, and he has a record of being one of 435 people that vote no on something because he doesn't like a sentence or where a comma is located in the bill he’ll vote against it. So he has an absurd and ridiculous record, he also voted absurdly and in a ridiculous manner when he opposed that bill he's trying to talk his way around and saying that people are coming around to his way of thinking. That's a complete mischaracterization in this statement, what he did is he opposed the President on one of the most important bills, you know the past 50 years at a time of crisis. And don't forget that he has opposed providing money to small businesses in Kentucky that needed help and still need help to this day. And so he's against small business. He's also against farmers which are a big constituency in this district. He voted against the 2018 Farm Bill on some technicality. I mean he always has some dumb little excuse as to why he's voting no. But the fact is is that he's completely ineffective, he can get nothing done from Kentucky, and you compare that to a person like me with a decades long record of success, representing cities, counties, police officers, representing small businesses, going to bat for people like Candace Owens and Nicholas Sandmann, and as I say, and as I've said before, I get more done in one year than he's gotten done in eight years in Washington. I do more for America, more for Kentucky than he's ever done and that he'll never be able to equal my record of success and helping Americans do the right thing.
Q. I'm sure when you launched your campaign you had no idea that we would be in a pandemic and you would have to shift the way you normally campaign-- you're not able to go out and meet voters and so how has it been trying to take on an incumbent when you're not able to go to meetings and be face to face with voters?
A. Yeah, it's been a negative for us. You know I haven't done the full tally on my opponents finance report but basically he represents just another Republican, you know, Tea Party type libertarian from Texas. You know the Texans basically own this seat, most of his money comes from the Ron Paul organization from the CATO Institute from Libertarians all across the country and they've got the seat held captive. And so, because he has this greater fundraising capacity by tapping the Ron Paul's of the world and the Libertarians of the world they own the seat in Kentucky for the benefit of their personal desires. He was able to out fundraise me I couldn't get out there and meet the people up close and personal and so that was a disadvantage for our campaign. That being said, we did do a good job, I'm sure that I've raised more money from Kentuckians than he has, I've raised a lot of money from Kentuckians and a lot of money from prominent people in the district, and so I think we did very well considering, our messages getting out this final week, we've got a strong final grouping of ads that are going out so I feel that the campaign has been a success, but I really wish I could have gotten out spoken with people face to face and it's frustrating when you're working in the phones when you rather be out at a fair or a parade or seeing people up front so yeah that's how I feel about it.