Ben Sasse Calls Out Trumpkins Supporting A War On The Media (TWEETS)

By
Darrell Lucus
-


When Donald Trump threatened to have NBC taken off the air for supposedly peddling fake news, the criticism came fast and hard. After all, it’s hard to see this as anything other than a renewed attack on the press by a man who believes the media is the enemy of the American people.

But a number of prominent Republicans didn’t understand what the fuss was all about. Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona, for instance, said that Trump was merely calling out the “systemic left-wing bias in the media.” Congressman Ron Estes of Kansas thought Trump was merely exercising his right to free speech.

At least one prominent Republican, however, has a big problem with Trump’s statement–Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska. When Sasse learned about Trump’s renewed Twitter war on the press, he wondered–loudly–if Trump was effectively violating his oath of office.

When Sasse ran for Senate in 2014, he seemed to be a tea partier from central casting. For instance, he seemed to suggest that you can disobey laws that run counter to your religious beliefs. Thus far, he has, at least on paper, been a line-drawing conservative in the Senate; he scored perfect 100 ratings from the American Conservative Union during his first two years in Washington.

But Sasse has also shown that it is possible to be conservative and still have scruples. He was a charter member of the never-Trump club, vowing as early as the winter of 2016 that he would not vote for Trump. He loudly questioned Trump’s commitment to the Constitution, and the First Amendment in particular. For the same reason, he skipped the Republican National Convention.


He was also one of the earliest Republicans to call for Trump to stop his 140-character tirades while in office.

Seen in this light, no one can say that Sasse didn’t give fair warning. But in the 48 hours since Sasse fired off that tweet, we have discovered that for a large element of the GOP, it’s verboten to call out a president for bullying the press.

Sean Hannity of Fox News was particularly upset. Hannity trumpeted Sasse’s candidacy in 2014. But after Sasse called out Trump, Hannity declared that Sasse is dead to him.

Sasse didn’t take this lying down.

He then asked his fellow conservatives a very important question.

A fair question. Chances are that thought would cause a lot of heads to explode–including many of the same people who see Trump’s bullying of NBC as merely an attempt to make the press “accountable.”

Hannity responded by claiming he supports the First Amendment–but then called Sasse a do-nothing Senator.

Actually, Sean, he has done something. He remembered that per his oath, he serves the people of Nebraska and the nation at large, not Trump.

Lest we think this is grandstanding, Sasse was almost certainly aware that Steve Bannon has threatened to find and fund primary challengers to nearly every Republican Senator up for reelection in 2018. It can safely be assumed that every Republican Senator up for reelection in 2020 as well–including Sasse.

One of my close friends at church is an old-school Nebraska Republican who is a close family friend of Sasse. Last year, after Sasse announced he was staying home rather than go to Cleveland, this friend told me that Sasse didn’t care if his opposition to Trump cost him re-election. She described him as a man who “really wants to serve his country.” He wanted to do so badly enough that he actually took a pay cut when he gave up his job as president of Midland University in his hometown of Fremont, near Omaha, to run for the Senate.


Judging by Sasse’s willingness to call out Trump and those still bowing down to him when he almost certainly knows he will face a primary in 2020, it’s safe to say that Sasse is still of that mind. To put it mildly, that’s commendable. I never thought I’d see the day I’d be publicly applauding a guy with a perfect 100 rating from the ACU. But some things are more important than party–like defending the most sacred principles of our democracy.

(featured image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)

Darrell Lucus
Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR