“Politics is not about the strange worship of one dude,” Sasse said. “The party can purify Trump skeptics. But I want to convince you that not only is the citizen cancer for the country, it’s just awful for our party. ”
A handful of big-name Republicans have faced shouts from their homelands in the wake of Trump’s indictment. The Arizona Republican Party voted to condemn Cindy McCain, widow of Senator John McCain, and former Senator Jeff Flake after Trump criticized both. Rep. Liz Cheney, the Republican no. 3 in the House, has setback in Wyoming after she voted to accuse Trump of inciting the riots in Capitol, and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) even went to her homeland to fight her to a crowd of over 800 people.
In his video statement, Sasse considered himself a loyal conservative and distinguished between his voters and members of the State Central Committee. He said very few voters in Nebraska “are as angry about life as some people on this committee.”
“Political addicts do not represent most Nebraska conservatives,” Sasse said.
The senator added that his criticism of Trump after the riots is consistent with his actions against Trump in the past, including the fact that he did not want to vote for him in 2016 and 2020. He also said the party’s anger against him was not about his ideology, noting that he was one of the most conservative members of the Senate. He rather said that his party was dissatisfied with the fact that he did not bend a knee to Trump.
Sasse also used the video to reiterate his contempt for Trump’s behavior between election day and his departure from office, as Trump continually spread false allegations that the election was stolen from him. Sasse said the uprising in the Capitol “happened because the president lied to you” and because Trump “made a crowd riot that attacked the Capitol – many sing ‘hang Pence’. ‘
“If the president was a Democrat, we both know how you would react,” Sasse said. “But because he has Republican behind his name, you are defending him.”
The motion of censure is not the only one that Sasse is experiencing in the state. The Scotts Bluff County GOP indicated Wednesday that he would condemn Sasse, and wrote an open letter announcing the senator after members were unable to contact him, according to The Scotts Bluff Star Herald.
Scotts Bluff County President Kolene Woodward told the Star Herald: ‘We’re terribly frustrated because he’s just ignoring us, so we thought if we posted an open letter, someone in his staff would read it and let him know, we proposed a resolution to our state central committee meeting next weekend at the provincial level to disregard him. ‘