Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse appeared this morning on CNN’s State of the Union, and as he sat on remote camera with host Jake Tapper, he said something that should definitely make the Republican Party sit up and listen.
Tapper pointed out that the first-term Senator had retweeted another social media user who said she had switched her party registration recently:
yep — regularly consider it
(except the “from Dem” part) https://t.co/ZZCQKOPhL9— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 8, 2018
Then the host asked him, “Why, and what’s stopping you from doing so?”
Sasse’s initial answer was almost predictable, since many Republicans have a hard time admitting that they’re Republicans in the era of Trump:
I conceive of myself as an independent conservative who caucuses with the Republicans, but frankly, neither of these parties have a long-term vision for the future of the country … The main thing that the Democrats are for is being anti-Republican and anti-Trump, and the main thing the Republicans are for is being anti-Democrat and anti-CNN, and neither of these things are really worth getting out of bed in the morning for.”
Obviously Ben has been thinking about waking up still a member of the GOP every day with his comment about getting out of bed in the morning. But that’s not all the thought he’s given to the AM hours. Tapper, closing in on the subject as he is so skilled at doing, asked the Senator, “Why stay a Republican, and when’s the last time you thought about becoming an Independent?”
I probably think about it every morning when I wake up, and I figure out why, why am I flying away from Nebraska to go to DC this week, are we gonna get real stuff done?”
Of course, Senator Sasse couldn’t leave well enough alone and let us believe that he’s actually considering leaving the GOP. He immediately went on to praise “some good things” Trump has done, including the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court — a decidedly non-independent point of view, since Kavanaugh is likely to be a crucial fifth vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
Watch the exchange here:
Featured image via screen capture
