His video was spun around the Republican universe on Thursday night and Friday, not because it was critical of Trump – as Sasse and other traditionalists used to be – but because it so directly challenged Trump’s fervent. supporters.
They form a massive base of Republican voters, which many party officials fear. On the eve of Trump’s second indictment – and even as the former president’s GOP polls decline slightly – Sasse remains an outspoken man in his willingness to expose the president’s false allegations and other actions. This makes him a study unlike pro-Trumpers like Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, two other prospects of the GOP president leading the Senate’s objections to Joe Biden’s victory.
With his unobtrusive video, the senator from one of the reddest states in the country tests the limits of never-Trumpism in a post-Trump world.
“He’s the first man to take on the grassroots activists in his own party in his own state,” said Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist who worked last year to defeat Trump.
Sasse’s video was, according to him, a ‘cold glass of water in the face of people who say’ the fever breaks’. “
The video took the form of a clear response to members of the Nebraska Republican Party’s Central Committee, who condemned Sasse in 2016 for insufficiently supporting Trump – and who are considering several measures to dismiss him later this month.
His act of defiance came long ago. As of November, Sasse has sharply criticized Trump’s attempt to overthrow the results of the presidential election. Last month, he described Hawley’s objection to ratifying Biden’s election college victory as a stupid expression. In a remark in The Wall Street Journal the morning of the deadly riot at the Capitol, he lamented ” a societal addiction to clickbait crack that treats politics like blood sport. “And in the aftermath of the uprising, he laid the blame squarely on Trump.
The result for Sasse – like Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming and other Republicans who have criticized the president – was a hefty rash from the base. Ryan Hamilton, the executive director of the Nebraska Republican Party, said the party had received eight separate resolutions to reprimand Sasse and had frustrated thousands of calls, emails and other messages about Sasse since his vote last week to attend Trump’s indictment. too late. move forward.
Hamilton said at the State Party offices: “Our phone has been blown up.”
Bruce Desautels, the Hitchcock County GOP chairman, said that despite their differences, Sasse endorsed Sasse’s re-election offer, saying that Sasse “stabbed the president in the back.”
“The man is one of the most condescending, arrogant, narcissistic individuals I have ever had the unfortunate circumstances to deal with, to meet,” Desautels said. The provincial party is holding an emergency meeting on Saturday to consider a resolution to reprimand Sasse. . “He does not represent Republican values as far as I am concerned.”
In response to the discussion of a censorship, Sasse, according to an adviser, began drafting a message, as he often does, on a stack of 3-inch by 5-inch index cards. And when the filming became time, his media consultant, Fred Davis, said he told him he would “Hollywood” it a bit, or at least change the angle of the recording.
Sasse did not want it. Instead, according to the adviser, he went to a studio in Washington on Thursday, sat in front of a single camera on a tripod and talked to it directly for just over five minutes.
“He wrote it and rewrote it and rewrote it,” Davis said. “He really thought about it a lot.”
Davis acknowledged that Sasse’s decision not to over-produce the video was the right decision, saying: “It’s just being honest. It does not thrive. He just tells you what he thinks. ‘
The political danger of Sasse’s thinking is obvious at the moment. On the same day he released his video, only 11 members of the Republican House went to the polls to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene, the pro-Trump member of the conspiracy, of her committee duties. Although Trump’s approval among Republicans is slightly lower than the previous highs, it still stands at about 80 percent.
In Nebraska, retaliation for Trump’s crossing was rapid. In Scotts Bluff County, a stronghold of Trump where GOP activists have already approved Sasse’s approval, Provincial Party chairwoman Kolene Woodward said Sasse’s criticism of Trump is not seen only as an accusation from Trump, but from Republicans loyal to him.
“He rejects a whole 75 million people who voted for Trump,” she said. “That’s my problem with that … Those ideals, and the things we wanted, are still on the table.”
Mary Jane Truemper, president of the Omaha Liberty Ladies, a conservative women’s group, said the video was “deaf and condescending”. And Hal Daub, a former Omaha Republican congressman, said that while he thinks Sasse is ‘premature’ before he votes on the accusation, ‘premature’, Sasse’s video is ‘just a little too much.’
One Republican strategist in Nebraska said that even if Sasse expects a decline in support for Trump over the next four years, there is likely a piece of the presidential primary voters who will view the blame on Trump as a litmus test. In a stampede, it could have potentially debilitating consequences for Trump critics like Sasse.
Sasse’s political prospects are based on a longer view of the Republican Party – and an uncertain bet that it will eventually move away from Trump. Sasse will not be eligible for re-election until 2026. And the presidential election, despite the early jockey that is already underway, will only start in earnest after the midterm elections next year.
In addition, the party apparatus may not be such an obstacle for Sasse as the headlines about censorship may make it seem. The influence of state party activities has waned over the past few years, accelerated by the explosion of social media for messages and fundraising of small dollars.
And the party is now more resilient than ever before – reforming more frequently to reflect its candidates than to bow to his will. Trump was scolded by many state party officials before recreating the party in his image. Sasse himself defeated a veteran of the party who tried to elect him last year, defeating Matt Innis by 75 percent of the vote. Innis, a Trump loyalist, was a former Republican Party chairman in Lancaster County, Neb.
For the majority of Republicans – “people who are not political addicts” – Ryan Horn, a Republican media strategist in Omaha, said: “I think most conservative voters will look at it. and give him credit for it. ”
In November, Sasse received more votes in Nebraska than Trump. Between that and the video, Horn said, “I think it’s important what he did.”
“I think he demonstrates that if you have the voters on your side, you do not have to be intimidated by condemning certain kinds of activists who want to do stupid things like Cindy McCain in Arizona or Ben Sasse in Nebraska,” he said. said. “It’s almost as if some of these people are making an effort to slander the most successful voters.”