Congressman: Virtual voting would block party leaders from using ‘intimidation’ tactics before votes

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) says that congressional leaders won’t ultimately permit remote voting or "virtual voting" because it would block them from being able to “twist arms” and practice other “intimidation" tactics before lawmakers cast their votes on legislation.

“Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer don't really want to work remotely," said Massie, referring to The No. 1 and No. 2 Democrats in the Democrat-controlled House.

"I believe what you're seeing is pushback from leadership because they can't twist people's arms through a telephone or through a teleconference, this sort of stuff," he also said in an interview with Just the News. "They walk up to you and whisper in your ear like, ‘Good luck with your election.’ You know, those intimidation things they can't do over the phone."

“They also can't separate you from your legislative counsel," Massie continued. "When I walk on the floor of the House, I can't bring staff with me, but the leadership gets to bring their staff, and so they're at an advantage when we start talking about what's in the bill, oftentimes, and they don't want to give up that advantage either.” 

Massie also said party leaders do not like the idea of remote voting because “they love to do voice votes and unanimous consent,” and remote votes would have “to be recorded to each member in order to be secure, and they don't want to give up their excuse to have voice votes and unanimous consent on passage of bills.”

Lawmakers often change their votes at the last minute after party leaders twist arms, but the public doesn’t see the vote change because it is not recorded, added Massie, a libertarian-minded Republican who frequently votes against GOP leadership.

“I think it would be fascinating if people could watch the members change their votes in real time, which happens on the floor,” he said. "You know, if a bill is not passing, and they want it to pass and they're only 10 votes short, they'll walk around and twist arms and get people to change their votes. That would be really hard to do by teleconference, and yet it happens all the time on consequential bills that are close votes in the House.”

Trump wrote on Twitter that Massie should be thrown out of the Republican Party for demanding a recorded vote on the $2.2 trillion CARES Act on March 27. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy of California also criticized Massie’s actions.

House Democrats are preparing a fourth coronavirus bill that could exceed $1 trillion. Massie pointed out that McCarthy is now repeating his own talking points by calling on the House to come back into session during the pandemic since a remote voting plan is not in place.

“His [McCarthy’s] talking points sound just like mine at this point — if truckers and nurses and farmers and grocery store workers are working, then Congress should work. The reality is they'd rather write the bill alone and then invite us back when it's time to vote on it,” Massie said.

"But my question is, if they're going to invite us back to vote when the bill is ready to vote on, who the hell's writing the bill? I mean, the American public hopefully can see through what goes on in Congress during these times when they see that we only come back for eight hours to vote on a bill and then we go back to our districts,” he added.

Massie also said Trump is calling for the House to come back in session as well, reflecting his own stance all along.

“Now the president got upset because he thought I might single-handedly tank the bill. That wasn't the case,” he said. “But now you hear the president saying what I said on March 27. He said Congress needs to get back to work, they need to show up and vote on these bills. And he's right about that. And I was right about it on March 27. So no hard feelings here from Kentucky.”

Massie explained that he personally prefers lawmakers work in-person going forward, rather than voting remotely.

“Surely congressmen making $174,000 a year with free travel can show up for work,” he said. “I prefer to do it in person, but if they don't want to do it in person or they can't do it in person, then we should be doing this stuff telephonically or by teleconference look,” he said.

“Every schoolchild in the United States is attending school online," he continued. "There are billions of dollars of banking transactions happening today, and even the Pentagon is doing telework. If the Pentagon can telework, then why can't Congress?”

Some lawmakers have raised security concerns with remote voting or conducting committee hearings remotely.

Massie said there’s no reason for Congress not to implement remote voting.

“If you're worried about somebody spying on your backroom deal, I guess that could be a concern," he said. "But look, what we do in Congress, 90% of it is publicly televised as it should be. And really the only problem there might be a denial of service attack, and I think we could get around that."