Rep. Thomas Massie went on the Tucker Carlson Show Wednesday and said out loud what a lot of people had been whispering: Trump brought Lauren Boebert into the White House Situation Room, pressured her to pull her name off the Epstein discharge petition, and then punished her when she refused. The punishment was a veto of the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act, a bipartisan bill that would have delivered clean water to roughly 50,000 residents in southeastern Colorado. Colorado is still without that water.
The Situation Room Play
When the Epstein Files Transparency Act discharge petition started gaining signatures in late 2025, the White House did not sit quietly. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy AG Todd Blanche, and FBI Director Kash Patel held a Situation Room meeting specifically to deal with the House push to force a vote. Boebert was brought in and pressed to stand down. She refused.
Massie described what followed on Tucker Carlson: "They took her over to the Situation Room and tried to whip her into taking her name off of the discharge petition over Epstein." After that, he said, "the president vetoed a bill that would have brought water to a large portion of Colorado, over Epstein."
Three Women, One Petition, and a Lot of Consequences
Boebert was one of four Republicans who crossed Trump to sign the petition: Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, and Boebert. Together they joined 214 Democrats to reach the 218 signatures needed to force a floor vote.
The consequences were not limited to water bills. Massie said on the Carlson show that MTG "practically gave up her political career over this," and that she and her children received death threats. Not from the left. From the right.
Boebert, for her part, did not mince words after the veto. "I sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability," she said. When a congresswoman has to issue that kind of statement about a water bill, the answer is usually obvious.
"Why are people in Colorado deprived of water because their representative wants to expose a sex trafficking ring?", Rep. Thomas Massie, Tucker Carlson Show, May 7, 2026
The Override That Wasn't
The Arkansas Valley Conduit has been in the works for decades. The pipeline would run 130 miles and provide clean drinking water to tens of thousands of rural Coloradans in the southeastern part of the state. The bill was bipartisan. Every Colorado member of Congress voted for the override.
The override attempt failed 248-177 in January 2026. House Republicans, as a body, chose to punish Colorado.
Trump's stated veto rationale was cost: local users were supposed to repay the project but had not, and Congress had already added funding in 2009 without progress. What Trump did not explain is why this decades-old infrastructure project suddenly became unacceptable in the same month his allies were working overtime to keep the Epstein files buried.
Massie Also Said Melania Agrees
Massie added another detail that is unlikely to make anyone in the West Wing happy: Melania Trump, he said, "agrees" with the theory that the Epstein files need to come out. He did not elaborate on how he knows this. The White House has not commented.
Sources
- Thomas Massie on Tucker Carlson: "Battling the Treachery of Trump's Republican Party, AIPAC, and the Epstein Class", YouTube
- Trump 'Vetoed a Bill That Would've Brought Water to a Large Portion of Colorado' After Boebert Voted to Release Epstein Files, Mediaite
- Lauren Boebert slams Trump veto of Colorado water project bill, says it could be retaliation, Fox News
- House refuses to override Trump veto of Colorado water project, CPR News
- Colorado's Boebert one of 4 Republicans who forced Epstein vote, Colorado Newsline
- Trump Took Revenge on MAGA Ally Lauren Boebert Over Epstein Vote, The Daily Beast
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