In response to President Trump’s December 23 pardons of Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, Nebraska GOP senator Ben Sasse issued a one-sentence statement: “This is rotten to the core.”
Although Sasse was one of the few Republicans who immediately denounced Trump’s pardons, some supporters of Joe Biden denounced Sasse for refusing to vote for Biden in November.
I just don’t get this. @BenSasse supported Donald Trump. In a country created by standing up to a King with the most powerful army in the world, even most of the smartest & best educated Republicans could not summon courage to oppose an enemy of democracy. Americans? https://t.co/KlVIyFHLeT
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) December 24, 2020
In a written statement, Sasse explained on Thursday afternoon why he decided to cast a write-in presidential ballot for Mike Pence in 2020 just as he did in 2016:
I get why many conservative voters chose President Trump over Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton — I couldn’t vote for either of those Democrats either. But I also swore an oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States. Voting for president is about two things: It’s partly about who you want to lead the executive branch the next four years, but it’s also partly a civic duty to reiterate what America means, what we want to teach our kids about moral leadership, and what kind of candidates we want in future elections. From where I sit, Donald Trump’s character and dishonesty don’t fit that bill — so, just as in 2016, I wrote in Mike Pence this election again. I like many of the policies the current administration and the Republican Senate have advanced over the last four years (the judges, the regulatory reform, the conservative stuff), but I couldn’t tell my kids that I think they, the party of Lincoln, or the country are well-served by the narcissism at the top of the ticket. As a pro-life conservative worried about the future of religious liberty and the broader First Amendment, I couldn’t in good conscience vote for Biden-Harris either. We’ve had two elections in a row where the winner’s message was mainly ‘I’m not the other candidate’ — America needs better choices.
In 2019, in the midst of a Nebraska Republican primary, Sasse won the endorsement of Trump, but Sasse told National Review he wouldn’t endorse Trump in 2020. Asked at the time if he might cast his presidential vote for Pence again in 2020, Sasse refused to say — and he didn’t publicly reveal his decision in the 2020 presidential election until now.
While Sasse has angered Trump’s staunchest opponents for picking and choosing his battles and for refusing to vote for Biden or to convict Trump in his impeachment trial, the Nebraska senator has also managed to anger Trump loyalists for publicly criticizing Trump more than most elected Republicans have.
In August, Sasse called some of Trump’s executive actions “unconstitutional slop,” and Trump responded by tweeting: “RINO Ben Sasse, who needed my support and endorsement in order to get the Republican nomination for Senate from the GREAT State of Nebraska, has, now that he’s got it (Thank you President T), gone rogue, again.”
In an October conference call with constituents, one Nebraskan asked Sasse why he criticizes Trump so much. Sasse pointed to Trump’s erratic response to the pandemic, as well as “the way he kisses dictators’ butts. I mean, the way he ignores that the Uyghurs are in literal concentration camps in Xinjiang. Right now, he hasn’t lifted a finger on behalf of the Hong-Kongers. The United States now regularly sells out our allies under his leadership, the way he treats women.”
Trump responded by calling Sasse a “liability to the Republican Party and an embarrassment to the Great State of Nebraska” and suggested Nebraska Republicans “should find a new and more viable candidate.”
Sasse, who had won his GOP primary in May by 50 points, ran ahead of Trump in the November general election.