Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse is facing more opposition in his home state of Nebraska for criticizing former President Trump.
Last week the local Republican Party in the state’s largest conservative county reportedly voted to help other counties in their bid to censure Sasse, 48, a Nebraska native who has served in the Senate since 2015.
Sarpy County Republicans voted 2-1 Thursday to join Scotts Bluff and Hitchcock counties to officially condemn Sasse for attacking Trump’s unsuccessful efforts to overturn the election results and for claiming Trump helped incite the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, the Omaha World-Herald reported.
Sasse, who easily won reelection in November, is a vocal critic of the former president and has been censured by his home state before.
Robert Anthony, a Sarpy County resident, voted for censure.
“Sasse says he’s just here to defend the Constitution, but Sarpy Republicans feel like people are trampling on the Constitution all the time,” Anthony said.
U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., speaks on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Jan. 19, 2021. (Associated Press)
Anthony said he and other Nebraska Republicans believe Sasse opportunistically supported the then-president until Sasse won his Senate primary, then the senator went back to criticizing Trump.
Sarpy County’s censure proposal focuses on what it called Sasse’s “character attacks,” according to the World-Herald.
SASSE SAYS THERE IS ‘BROKENNESS’ IN TRUMP’S SOUL
Sasse, undeterred by the threat, defended himself in a video that was released Thursday and addressed to members of the Republican State Central Committee. The committee will vote Feb. 13 on whether to censure him.
“You are welcome to censure me again,” Sasse says in the video, “but let’s be clear about why this is happening. It’s because I still believe, as you used to, that politics isn’t about the weird worship of one dude.”
“Let’s be clear: The anger in this state party has never been about me violating principle or abandoning conservative policy ‒ I’m one of the most conservative voters in the Senate ‒ the anger’s always been simply about me not bending the knee to one guy,” Sasse emphasized. “Personality cults aren’t conservative. Conspiracy theories aren’t conservative. Lying that an election has been stolen is not conservative.
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Douglas County Republican Party Chairman Christian Mirch told the newspaper its members had not received a censure motion and “Instead, the DCRP is focused on moving forward as a unified party, with an eye toward our shared conservative values.”
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
