Sasse has just won a Trump ballot and is as relaxed as one can be about his political situation. He has no internal pressure in the Senate for his vote to convict Trump of inciting insurgency. A previous abuse in 2016 did not rattle his opinions. If there’s a model for successfully building a Conservative GOP out of Trump’s shadow, it might as well be him.
But Sasse cannot be completely repeated. He’s a bit of a loner in the Senate, both in terms of style and content, someone who cannot comprehend how the news of cables, biased congressional speeches and the cultural wars came to dominate politics.
That is not to say that Sasse does not care that Nebraskans spend their Saturday on Sasse’s vote to convict Trump. In fact, he’s surprised that Republicans in his state even worked on Super Bowl Sunday to condemn him.
‘You want to go to a hotel, pull up a conference room in the mall, and shout at a politician who’s trying to tell you,’ I would oppose anyone in my own party who has broken their oath? “” He marvels at him. ” It’s not healthy. ‘
Sasse easily found Sasse during a 30-minute interview in his shelter in Capitol. From Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) He says: ‘That man is not an adult.’ President Joe Biden’s White House is thinking of people like Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (DN.Y.). Sasse sees the Congress itself as little more than a bunch of cheers screaming. ‘
Sasse, 49, has a youthful energy, a fast pace of speech and everyone’s attraction. When he breaks open his fridge, he reveals a solid variety of Bud Light cans. He has a dry sense of humor, and is dead set on his beloved Cornhuskers’ recent battle: “Half of all presidential accusations in American history happened before Nebraska won another Big 10 game.”
He is not a particularly active participant on the Senate floor or in the GOP’s party meetings. He spends much of his time on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which he finds best among his commissions. And like most younger, emerging players in one of the parties, Sasse dismisses the question of whether he is preparing to run for president.
‘I’m sure I, like every 17-year-old achiever, have said stupid things in the past. “Electing me as president has never been my goal,” he said.
When he turned down his colleagues shouting to wear the pro-Trump cloak to advance their own ambitions, he said he was not pursuing issues that are “sexy for the anger-industrial complex tomorrow.” do not interest me. actively bore me. “
Sasse surprised some senators when he first landed in the Capitol in 2015, but today there is still more respect for him as a bad and serious member who is serious about his job. When the Democrats took back the Senate this year, Mark Warner (D-Va.), Chairman of the intelligence committee, spoke a good word for Sasse with Democratic leaders to make sure he did not lose his seat on the panel. Warner says keeping Sasse was ‘very important’ to him.
Progressive Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said Trump’s presidency tested his friendship with Sasse. But after the conviction of the Nebraska, Schatz said, “history will judge Ben Sasse as a brave leader.”
Even the most in front of Trump senators want Sasse at the GOP table instead of in the desert.
“I do not agree with his approach to Trump. But I want to grow the party, not divide the party, “said Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.). “Ben, if he wants to, his future is bright in the Republican Party.”
Sasse spoke to Trump more during his presidency than he allowed in public, and Trump is campaigning to elect Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and try to fend off his tariff regime. In general, Sasse backed Trump’s nominees and legislation on the Senate floor, but detested the former president’s antagonistic style.
An early draft of the Nebraska GOP’s censorship resolution under consideration Saturday said Sasse “has sustained public outcry and ridicule against President Donald J. Trump.” The attempt to convict Sasse in the Omaha area fell apart this week, indicating a possible lack of enthusiasm to follow through.
Sasse regards the party’s efforts to condemn him as the latest act of performative outrage in American politics. He wishes he could do more to explain to Republicans that Trump’s promotion and protection does not mean what is conservative: “You can not redefine conservatism as a conspiracy theory.”
“I would like to persuade more people,” Sasse said. “We must try to explain a Madisonian view of conservatism: limited government, the first amendment, the local community is primary.”
Sasse has the opportunity as one of the most prominent anti-Trump politicians in a party that does not have a clear leader. He said he would help Republicans take back the Senate, but was looking for “candidates who want to do more than Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
Before long, Sasse will definitely be in the presidential mix for Republicans who want to turn Trump around.
“He will be an excellent candidate,” said Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who will retire next year and accompany Sasse as senator. ‘I just want to warn that 2024 is a lifetime away. And you do not know where he positions himself in relation to the field if he does run. ”
“He’s the kind of man who ends up deep in the weeds,” said Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Who voted to condemn Trump. “He has a very important and constructive voice for the party.”
Yet Sasse is selective when it comes to using that voice. He avoids Capitol scrums and TV hits. But he has a lot to say.
During a thirty-minute interview, he jumped on the bandwagon of his disapproval of the failure of the Texas power grid as another case of culture war screaming by swallowing everything. Asked what he thought of President Joe Biden’s stimulus package, he released a lengthy condemnation of Biden’s “disastrous” spending plan for education. Realizing how excited the matter was, he added, “I did not want to get passionate about it.”
But Sasse can get intense if he discusses his issues. His biggest criticism of his own work is that the Senate is not ‘focused on’ problems facing the country when it comes to the future of work, confronts China and prepares for what life will look like in ten years’ time.
It certainly does not sound like a neat and tidy presidential platform, does it?
“I’m genuinely focused on the issues I’m focused on because I think that’s the best way to fulfill my calling to love my neighbor in this job,” ‘2024 is not really my timeline. 2030 is the timeline. ”