Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) recently lost the most expensive primary race in American history.

Why? For some, this remains a grand mystery.

It was a mystery, apparently, for The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles after the primary runoff defeat of Senator John Cornyn in Texas. Knowles posted:

Why did the Israel lobby remove Cornyn? That is the key to understanding all these primary upsets, right?

— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) May 27, 2026

To which comedian, libertarian and Jewish-American Dave Smith replied with the-most-obvious-observation-in-the-world to anyone who has remotely paid attention to these races:

Who actually said it’s the key to understanding all of these primaries? Oh yeah, no one.

It’s the key to understanding Thomas Massie’s primary where the Lobby pumped in more money than has ever been spent in a congressional race in US history. https://t.co/sLeMtzyTry

— Dave Smith (@ComicDaveSmith) May 27, 2026

But how could this be? Pro-Israel interests pouring millions of dollars into one particular Republican primary race where the target has a long history of vehemently being against Israel’s wars, his own country’s involvement in them, and sending billions of American dollars to fund them?

And Donald Trump’s mad at him at a time when Israel lobby interests and the president’s line up nicely?

Still, how could anyone ever think such a thing?

According to Politico, which after a thorough analysis I found not to be a purely unreliable conspiracy theory site:

“The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other pro-Israel interest groups have uncorked over $9 million in a bid to unseat Republican Rep. Thomas Massie on Tuesday in a competitive primary that has shattered spending records. Prominent pro-Israel GOP donors have funneled millions more into a super PAC stood up by President Donald Trump’s political operation that has spent nearly $7 million on the race. Overall ad spending has topped $32 million, making it the most expensive House primary on record, per tracking firm AdImpact.” [Emphasis added.]

According to The New York Times, which I also verified that despite its left bias does report actual news on occasion:

“Supporters of Mr. Trump, as well as pro-Israel groups that are unhappy with Mr. Massie over his opposition to the war with Iran, have spent heavily to defeat the congressman…They and other advertisers have laid out nearly $19 million against Mr. Massie or in favor of (Massie’s opponent Ed Gallrein). Last summer, Mr. Trump’s aides even started a super PAC, MAGA KY, for the purpose of ousting Mr. Massie, drawing support from the Republican megadonor Paul Singer and a super PAC heavily funded by Miriam Adelson, another megadonor and supporter of Mr. Trump. Two pro-Israel groups, including one tied to the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee, spent over $9 million against him.”

Paul Singer and Miriam Adelson are well established as pro-Israel billionaires. This pro-Israel money factor reported to be such a major part of Massie’s defeat was not a factor in the Cornyn race.

So, again, what could have possibly made Massie’s election the most expensive primary race in American history? I’m still trying to connect the dots here.

Let’s ask AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group heavily involved in this Kentucky race, whose X account posted after Massie lost:

Looks like someone was a little giddy and accidentally let the cat out of the bag…not surprisingly AIPAC ended up deleteting this post… pic.twitter.com/eGH9bIYbZp

— Woz (@accordingtowoz) May 25, 2026

That message was accompanied by a laughing emoji. That message was also taken down.

Too on the nose?

Hell, let’s listen to Commentary editor and Jewish-American John Podhoretz, who said after Massie’s defeat, openly and boastfully, “We have to use what means there are at our disposal, and…that is Jewish money!”

“This is an existential issue for Jews!” Podhoretz insisted. “Anti-Semitic” candidates need to know “they are going to have to go through a buzzsaw.”

It’s worth noting that for most neoconservatives and pro-Israel advocates, being “anti-Semitic” typically means believing that your own country’s interests and Israel’s interests aren’t always exactly the same. There needs to be no tangible bigotry and actual ethnic hatred for pro-Israel forces to deploy this smear. Massie in particular has never appeared to exhibit any such malicious behavior.

This worn-out barb is essentially just the neoconservative version of woke leftists who label anyone who questions the wisdom of allowing minors to undergo gender transition surgery “transphobic.”

It’s transparently false on the surface, but also just plain dumb to anyone who’s being intellectually honest.

That’s key. On the current American right, you have conservatives and libertarians like Dave Smith, the Libertarian Institute’s own Scott Horton, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Steve Bannon and others who openly talk about U.S. relations with Israel and question aspects of it.

All of these people are routinely called anti-semites for doing merely what I just described.

Then you have the neoconservative right that seems most concerned with promoting war and fealty to Israel (no questions asked) above all else. This would be Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), radio hosts and podcasters like Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin and unfortunately, right now, President Donald Trump.

They see themselves as gatekeepers. Even though this wealthy group of pro-Israel figures and organizations often referred to as the “Israel Lobby” were clearly a determining factor in the result of the recent Republican primary election for Kentucky’s Fourth District, we are now expected to just ignore or pretend that didn’t happen.

Knowles is by no means the only person on the right to do this. His example just caught my attention in particular because he’s a smart guy whose work I have enjoyed, particularly when it comes to apologetics.

As a fellow conservative, I agree with and admire much of what Knowles says. I really don’t even consider him a neocon in the fashion of Podhoretz.

But I must say, as a Catholic, and I would put the equally intelligent and enjoyable Matt Walsh in this same category (I do not include ‘Pints with Aquinas’ host Matt Fradd, who isn’t political), it drives me up the wall that while Pope Leo is strongly denouncing the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and the “barbarity” of the genocide in Gaza, that when it comes to war and peace, the Catholics at The Daily Wire almost always sound more like Ben Shapiro than Rome.

Yes, millions of dollars were poured into the Kentucky primary of Rep. Thomas Massie to defeat him by a collective entity that can fairly be referred to as the Israel lobby, and that lobby succeeded in its mission. Massie lost and that foreign interest group is the primary reason why.

It’s a fact of history.

Ideologues are free to feel a certain way about it for any reasons they might have, but as someone once said, “Facts don’t care about your feelings.”