Nick Shirley declares war on Thomas Massie after lawmaker tries to belittle his work

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: A clash over alleged daycare fraud in New York quickly turned personal on Saturday, August 15, after Rep Thomas Massie appeared to question whether Nick Shirley's reporting deserved to be taken seriously.

Shirley had been speaking out about alleged taxpayer-funded fraud involving daycares in New York City and questions surrounding donations to Gov Kathy Hochul.

Massie responded by turning the spotlight on Shirley instead, and the 24-year-old creator was not interested in backing down.

Thomas Massie and Nick Shirley engage in war of words

The exchange began after Shirley posted a video on X accusing New York officials of staying silent over allegations involving daycare operators who receive millions of dollars in taxpayer funding.

Shirley specifically pointed to claims involving social adult daycare centers in New York City and questioned whether political connections were playing a role.

His post also referenced allegations that Gov Kathy Hochul had received campaign donations from people connected to the daycare industry.

Massie did not focus on the specific New York allegations. Instead, the Kentucky Republican took aim at Shirley himself.

“Hard to take Nick Shirley 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 immediately pushed back.

“In other words ‘Why can’t a 24 yr old solve all the government’s spending problems?’” he replied, accusing Washington politicians of spending more time arguing on X than doing their jobs.

He then challenged Massie directly: “I’ve exposed and saved America billions. What have you done?”

Massie continued the exchange, asking Grok whether Shirley had actually saved Americans billions of dollars.

Shirley responded by listing the areas he says his investigations have brought under scrutiny.

“My work and videos have exposed billion-dollar fraud industries, cut funding, stopped billions of dollars from being sent out in the future, and led to prosecutions and arrests,” Shirley wrote.

He then added sarcastically, “Throwing jabs on X does nothing for Americans. In the meantime, get a learing hoodie it looks good on you.”

Nick Shirley's NYC probe raises eyebrows

The argument came as questions were being raised about New York’s social adult daycare industry.

Shirley had previously made fraud investigations a central part of his work and had recently released a video exposing fraud in NYC.

In July, he was accompanied by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr Mehmet Oz during visits to New York businesses that they believed raised questions about possible Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

Oz described some of the situations they encountered as major red flags.