But Sasse is standing his ground. In the video released Thursday, he blamed Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol that left a police officer and four others dead.
“Now, many of you are hacked off that I condemned his lies that led to a riot. Let’s be clear: the anger in the state party has never been about me violating principle or abandoning conservative policy. I’m one of the most conservative voters in the senate. The anger has always simply been about me not bending the knee to one guy,” Sasse said, looking directly at the camera to address state party officials.
On Thursday, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse released a five-minute video in response to efforts by the Nebraska Republican State Central Committee to censure him due to his criticism of former President Donald Trump, as reported by
The Hill. Sasse told Republicans in the state that they must choose between conservatism and madness as he faces a censure at the committee s meeting on February 13. Sasse was previously censured in May 2016 for not being supportive enough of the then-Republican presidential candidate.
Sasse, who has served in the Senate since 2015, described the efforts to remove Republicans not fully behind Trump from the party as not only civic cancer for the nation [but] just terrible for our party. He described those in the Nebraska state party of being out of touch with local people and angry about life.