Jeffrey Toobin called out Sens. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Ben Sasse (R-NE) on CNN, saying they talk about standing up to President Trump but actually “do nothing.”
Said Toobin: “They never vote against the president. They never actually take a stand.”
Sasse Warns of ‘Deepfake’ Perfect Storm
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) — who’ll be out Tuesday with his second book, Them: Why We Hate Each Other — and How to Heal — tells Axios about new artificial intelligence algorithms that can create convincing fake images, audio and video and potentially disrupt our politics.
Said Sasse: “I had a conversation last month with one of the most senior U.S. intelligence officials, who told me that many leaders in the intelligence community worry that we’re on the verge of a deepfakes ‘perfect storm.'”
Sasse Wants to ‘Drain the Swamp for Real’
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) “introduced an ethics reform package of bills that included proposals to require presidential and vice presidential candidates to release their income tax returns and ban members of Congress from ever becoming paid lobbyists,” the Lincoln Journal Star reports.
Said Sasse: “Drain the swamp for real. Both parties talk a big game on the campaign trail, but then look the other way as soon as they get a taste of power.”
Sasse Said He’s Considered Leaving the GOP
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) acknowledged on Twitter that he “regularly” considers leaving the Republican party.
Sasse was responding to someone who said they left the Democratic party to become a “no party” voter and asked the GOP senator if he ever considered following suit.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“The drama of this op-ed, the drama of the Woodward book, the drama of the Omarosa tapes, the drama of Cohen, the drama of Manafort, the drama of just the three-ring circus that is the White House almost every day, I think that it exhausts the American people. And I know that the founders would regard anything like this as you know, really unhelpful. You don’t run the country as a soap opera.”
— Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show.
GOP Senator Slams Trump Attack on Justice Department
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) rebuked President Trump’s latest attack against the Department of Justice for pursuing criminal charges against two Republican congressmen, The Hill reports.
Said Sasse: “The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice – one for the majority party and one for the minority party.”
He added: “These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the President was when the investigations began. Instead of commenting on ongoing investigations and prosecutions, the job of the President of the United States is to defend the Constitution and protect the impartial administration of justice.”
Sasse Threatens to Vote Against New Attorney General
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) said he “would be highly unlikely to vote for any new attorney general nominee if President Trump were to fire Jeff Sessions,” the Washington Examiner reports.
Said Sasse: “I find it really difficult to envision any circumstance where I would vote to confirm a successor to Jeff Sessions if he is fired because he’s executing his job, rather than choosing to act as a partisan hack. The attorney general of the United States should not be fired for acting honorably and for being faithful to the rule of law.”
Sasse Calls Putin a ‘Murderer’
Just hours before Presidnet Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) launched a brutal attack on Twitter calling the Russian president a crook, a liar, and a murderer.
Sasse Tempts Trump’s Wrath
“Ben Sasse has so far been spared the public floggings that Donald Trump inflicted on two since-vanquished GOP critics in the Senate, Jeff Flake and Bob Corker. But that may soon change. As the ‘never Trump’ faction of the Republican Party dwindles to a lonely few, the Nebraska senator has shown little interest in backing down – leaving him vulnerable to a Trump-fueled primary challenge in 2020, when he’s up for reelection,” Politico reports.
“How Sasse responds — he has a book coming out three weeks before the midterm elections and has quietly launched a new political non-profit group, fueling speculation that he might launch a Hail Mary bid for president rather than seek another term in the Senate — promises to be the next intra-GOP drama.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“This is dumb. Europe, Canada, and Mexico are not China, and you don’t treat allies the same way you treat opponents. We’ve been down this road before—blanket protectionism is a big part of why America had a Great Depression. ‘Make America Great Again’ shouldn’t mean ‘Make America 1929 Again.'”
— Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), quoted by the Washington Post, on President Trump’s decision to impose steel and aluminum tariffs.
Sasse Writing a Book on Political Polarization
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) is writing a book about the polarization of America, the Lincoln Journal Star reports.
“The book is coming together during the 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. hours that Sasse devotes to reading and writing most days.”
It’s going to be titled Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal.
Sasse Quits Using Twitter
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) “is known as one of the more prolific Twitter users in Congress, often writing his own tweets himself to chime in on policy issues, crack jokes, and in some cases, rebuke President Donald Trump. But over Christmas weekend last year, Sasse stopped tweeting and has not picked up the phone since,” Business Insider reports.
Sasse sees his sabbatical from Twitter as a healthy decision too, because “there’s just a ton of data about the way social media is designed to create dopamine hits for teenage kids.”
Hannity Hits Back at Sasse
Fox News host Sean Hannity fanned the flames of his feud with Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), saying he has “done nothing” in the Senate and to “call me when you repeal Obamacare loser,” The Hill reports.
He added: “How about standing up to McConnell?”
Sasse Declines Heritage Foundation Top Job
“The Heritage Foundation has approached one of the Senate’s leading anti-Trump Republicans, Ben Sasse, to gauge his interest in serving as president — an indication the influential conservative think tank may turn away from its supportive posture toward the president,” Politico reports.
“Sasse, who was elected to his first term in the Senate in 2014, has swatted down the overtures from Heritage’s board of trustees.”
The Wasted Mind of Ben Sasse
Slate: “Many politicians are hypocrites, of course. But most of them are also phonies and bullshitters. Ben Sasse isn’t. He stands out by educating himself earnestly and speaking honestly about complicated matters of history and policy… Unfortunately, he is also beginning to stand out by doing nothing of substance as the things he says he believes in are thrown in a garbage can by his own party.”
How Not to Primary Donald Trump
“If there’s a path for a Republican to challenge Donald Trump, it doesn’t run through Iowa. Sen. Ben Sasse’s foray this weekend into the first-in-the-nation caucus state has already sparked chatter about a potential 2020 GOP primary to unseat Trump. But Iowa’s top operatives say there’s no appetite, today, to see any Republican take on the president,” McClatchy reports.
“That hasn’t stopped Sasse, and his possible ambitions, from attracting attention in Iowa and nationwide, notably as Trump’s disapproval rating hovers around 60 percent and a smattering of Republicans around the country speak openly of their hopes for a run from someone like the Nebraska senator… Yet despite Trump’s myriad challenges and the angst his Twitter account causes in Washington, he remains so strong in conservative corners of Trump-friendly states, including Iowa, that party leaders, operatives and grassroots activists say there is no serious on-the-ground discussion of a 2020 challenge at this point.”
Sasse Says Trump Is ‘Weaponizing Distrust’
Sen. Ben Sasse told CNN that he is troubled by President Trump’s latest attacks on the news media because he is concerned about the danger of “weaponizing distrust.”
Said Sasse: “There’s an important distinction to draw between bad stories or crappy coverage and the right that citizens have to argue about that and complain about that and trying to weaponize distrust. The First Amendment is the beating heart of the American experiment, and you don’t get to separate the freedoms that are in there.”
