Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, one of the few Republicans who has been openly critical of AIPAC, has said that every Republican in Congress has an AIPAC babysitter. The congressman spoke with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for an episode of his podcast earlier this month, when he made the statement about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has been coming under increasing scrutiny for its influence over United States elections.

Massie added that these “babysitters” tend to be from the representative’s district, but they’re firmly part of AIPAC. “They pay for trips for congressmen and their spouses to go to Israel,” He continued. “I’m not the only Republican who hasn’t taken the AIPAC trip to Israel, but I’m probably one of a dozen that hasn’t taken that trip and the other ones just haven’t got around to it.”

Though it has long been a powerful lobbying group, AIPAC only began raising money for individual candidates in 2021. Since that time, it has run negative ads against lawmakers it views as hostile to Israel or insufficiently supportive of the country. AIPAC spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads against Massie before his primary election. Massie remains among the few public servants who doesn’t capitulate to sending American taxpayer dollars to fund foreign conflicts. Thomas Massie’s wife just died.