Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie challenged Nick Shirley on Saturday over adult daycare fraud funding, urging him to target federal leaders instead. Shirley turned the criticism back on him. Their clash followed Shirley’s Thursday video linking New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to donations from adult daycare operators.
Shirley posted the video on X, where he revisited alleged adult daycare fraud in Flushing, Queens.
“Remember when I went and exposed the adult daycare scam inside of New York City?” Shirley asked. He said centers “were billing for an impossible amount of patients.”
Shirley pointed to Livingwell Day Care, which he said received $8.6 million in 2025. He said the center billed the state for 406 beneficiaries on its peak day.
Shirley also pointed to campaign contributions from adult daycare operators, claiming they gave Hochul more than $55,000. Recent reporting has similarly identified approximately $55,000 in contributions to Hochul’s 2022 campaign from operators in the industry.
“The reason why these politicians get so mad at me when I expose the fraud is because I’m exposing the very dollars that benefit them,” Shirley said.
Massie then shifted the dispute toward federal spending.
“Hard to take @nickshirleyy seriously until he starts calling out Johnson, Thune, and Trump for funding the daycare fraud in every Omnibus and CR bill with no guardrails,” Massie wrote.
Shirley quoted the post and responded: “Why can’t a 24 yr old solve all the government’s spending problems?”
“You people in DC are a large part of the problem,” he continued. “All you do is complain and whine on X while your job is to actually work for us.”
Shirley ended with a challenge: “I’ve exposed and saved America billions. What have you done?”
Thomas Massie and Nick Shirley Clash Over Adult Daycare Fraud
The exchange drew competing reactions over who bears responsibility for stopping questionable government spending.
One X user wrote, “A 24-year-old independent journalist is uncovering waste while elected officials sit in DC asking why he hasn’t fixed all of it. Nick’s job is to expose it. Your job is to do something about it.”
Another argued, “MASSIE literally was part of Congress that APPROVED the FRAUD spending, for YEARS… BUT MASSIE DID NOT DO HIS JOB.”
However, Massie’s voting record complicates that criticism. He has repeatedly opposed major federal spending bills and continuing resolutions, including voting against the 2026 consolidated appropriations package and a July 2026 funding extension. He was the only House Republican to oppose the latter measure.
A separate user wrote, “Massie loves pointing fingers at everyone else while the same broken spending machine keeps rolling under his watch.”
Another stated, “Nick Shirley is 100% correct. Thomas Massie accomplished nothing while Nick Shirley exposed an avalanche of fraud.”
Others defended Massie. One wrote, “This ain’t it, bro. @RepThomasMassie is the ONE person in government actually trying to curb spending & expose corruption.”
Another stated, “Thomas Massie is the only one who’s consistently voted for years to solve the problem. Your barking up the wrong tree.”
The dispute remains centered on who should bear responsibility for preventing questionable spending after alleged fraud is exposed.
