An ally of Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., is receiving blowback for painting Ed Gallrein, Massie’s challenger, as a veteran potentially abusing disability benefits.
“Ed Gallrein has received government benefits for claiming to be 100% physically disabled, while also claiming to do demanding full-time farm work on his family’s operation,” Andrew Cooperrider, a radio and podcast host, said in a post to Facebook.
“This raises serious questions about consistency, transparency and accountability,” he continued.
The post drew criticisms from experts in the veterans’ community for what they called a mischaracterization of the Veterans Affairs (VA) disability rating system. It also highlights the sensitivity of a race that pits a Trump-endorsed candidate against one of the president’s most frequent critics.
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“I think it’s disgraceful that any type of campaign would try to use a VA disability rating against somebody,” Mark Lucas, founder and president of Veteran Action, an advocacy group, said of Cooperrider’s post.
“Just because a veteran has a disability, it does not mean that they can’t work,” Lucas added.
Gallrein, a former longtime Navy SEAL and fifth-generation Kentucky farmer, has positioned himself as a pro-Trump candidate looking to unseat the biggest thorn in the side of the GOP. He contends that Massie’s decision to vote against Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, his push to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act and constant criticisms of overseas conflicts in Iran and Venezuela all go against the grain of the party.
Gallrein received Trump’s endorsement earlier this year.
Tim Murtaugh, an advisor to his campaign, blasted Cooperrider’s Facebook post, calling the criticism an “offensive attack.”
“This is a ridiculous and offensive attack on a veteran, a potentially illegal invasion of privacy and it proves Massie and his allies truly have no shame and no honor,” Murtaugh said.
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Prior to his political aspirations, Gallrein served as a member of SEAL Team Six, deploying to conflict zones in Panama and the Persian Gulf among others, before returning to work on his family’s farm, according to his online biography.
It’s unclear what kind of injuries led the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to give Gallrein the 100% disability rating.
Darin Selnick, former VA Affairs advisor for the White House Domestic Policy Council and a senior advisor for Veteran Action, explained that a disability rating is a multi-factor assessment of injuries sustained in service-related activity that then serves as a basis for federal assistance.
He stressed that veterans have little say in the rating they ultimately receive.
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“When you file for the claim, the VA has an independent medical examiner that looks at your medical records. They do additional medical examinations to confirm what’s in the medical records. That report goes to the ratings examiner,” Selnick said.
“VA then says, okay, based on this rating, you then get X amount of compensation per month for the service-connected injuries that happened to you.”
Cooperrider did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
