By Elaina Plott
Thursday, March 3, 2016
‘I don’t understand what motivates Chris Christie.”
That’s one of Senator Ben Sasse’s softer statements
during our conversation Wednesday morning. We’re talking about the New Jersey
governor’s recent endorsement of Donald Trump. After multiple media appearances
this week following his declaration that he would not vote for Trump under any
circumstance, Sasse can lambast the Republican front-runner on autopilot. But
when reflecting on Trump’s latest string of high-profile surrogates, he
struggles for the right words.
“I think — I mean — maybe you have to know Christie well
to understand him, to speculate about it, and I don’t know him,” Sasse says.
“But it’s pretty hard to read the transcripts of stuff he’s said in the past
about Trump, put them up against what he says now, and say, ‘Oh, yeah. That is
definitely a mature, adult consistency.’”
Beginning with a series of tweets in January questioning
Trump for boasting about his marital infidelities, his support for single-payer
healthcare, and his Second Amendment views, Sasse emerged early on as a vocal
anti-Trump force. Now, through an open
letter via Facebook, he’s pledging to oppose Trump no matter what, and is
urging conservatives to unite around a third-party alternative should he clinch
the nomination.
That Sasse — the wonky, conservative freshman from Nebraska
— has joined the so-called #NeverTrump movement is not all that striking. What is striking is that he’s the only
sitting senator to have done so, his voice echoing in a chamber empty of
Republicans who will openly stand beside him. Sasse has grappled with that fact
in recent days, especially as Christie and colleagues such as Alabama senator
Jeff Sessions — Sasse says he still “like[s]” and “respect[s]” Sessions — join
the Trump train. But in an arena where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House
speaker Paul Ryan refuse to breathe the front-runner’s name, Sasse is launching
his own offensive.
On Morning Joe
on Tuesday, Sasse told Joe Scarborough that if Trump and his brand of identity
politics become the party’s new standard, “I’m out.” That declaration was
notable, marking a clean break from those like Ryan, who as recently as Tuesday
pledged to back the GOP and support the nominee, even if it’s Trump. But Sasse
says that no true conservative is unduly bound to his party. “I’m an American
first, conservative second, and a Republican only in a distant third.”
“I want the party of Lincoln and Reagan. Not the party of
David Duke and Donald Trump,” he says. “If this is a party that would wink at
white supremacists, I’m not leaving the party. The party is leaving me.”
Indeed, although Sasse emphasizes that no single moment
catalyzed his anti-Trump stance — he blasted Trump as a “lawless sonuvagun” in
his maiden floor speech in December — he says that Trump’s unwillingness to
condemn the KKK proved a tipping point. For Sasse, the moment spoke to the
inherent cunning of Trump’s campaign strategy, a consistent ploy to “niche
market” his way to the White House. Many have observed that Trump’s waffling
over David Duke and the KKK was an attempt to save face with southern voters,
something that Scarborough, a Florida native, called “insulting” on his show.
But it’s precisely this “niche marketing” on which the Trump campaign has
thrived, Sasse says. “He’s the best marketer that’s ever run for office. I just
have no idea if he has any core principles whatsoever.”
Sasse isn’t blind to the ethos that propelled Trump to
his cozy lead. “You are rightly worried about our national direction,” he wrote
in his letter to Trump supporters. “You ache about a crony-capitalist
leadership class that is not urgent about tackling our crises. You are right to
be angry.”
He reiterates that understanding in our conversation,
crediting Trump for laying bare the country’s unheard voices, those whom the
political class consistently pledges to protect, and those for whom it
consistently fails to follow through. “I get that. Why do you think I ran for
office?” he says. “But ‘Let’s burn everything down’ is not the right response.
Our response should not be to put up a fundamentally dishonest New York liberal
to square off with another fundamentally dishonest New York liberal.”
The problem for now is that very few lawmakers are following
Sasse’s lead. In a Tuesday press conference, McConnell told reporters, “It’s
very important that the American people understands the GOP condemns . . . David Duke, the KKK, and everything they
stand for.” And Ryan made his most direct foray into the race yet at a separate
press conference, declaring, “This party does not prey on people’s prejudices.
We appeal to its highest ideals.”
“I’m really glad Speaker Ryan said what he said,” Sasse
says. But it remains true that neither Ryan nor McConnell would utter Trump’s
name, even when pressed by reporters in follow-up questions. And many are
wondering if the GOP can actually stop Trump from barrelling ahead if its two
leaders refuse to call their target by name.
Sasse maps the path forward as a potential replay of the
presidential election in 1860, when the Whig party’s internal collapse had
given way to something of a four-way race. It made for a seismic shift in America’s
political landscape at the time, but Sasse says it was ultimately a force for
good, allowing Lincoln to emerge and become the standard-bearer of the
Republican party.
It’s not the ideal scenario for 2016, of course, and
Sasse issues the disclaimer that it’s a “last resort” in a primary that’s “far
from over.” For Sasse, the preferred route is to have the party coalesce behind
someone already in the race. He says it’s difficult for him to understand why
lawmakers would allow personal grievances to cause them to support Trump over
Cruz. “The first thing people should ask in choosing a candidate is: ‘Who loves
the Constitution?’ And there is no dispute that Cruz and Rubio both love the
Constitution.”
As Sasse tells it, when Lindsey Graham said Tuesday night
on CBS that Republicans may have to “rally around Ted Cruz as the only way to
stop Donald Trump,” his wife turned to him and said, “Well, there’s a man.”
But if that sentiment doesn’t filter through the party
ranks, whether for Cruz or Rubio, Sasse says he’s prepared to lobby hard for a
third-party candidate — perhaps to run in the Constitution party, which
currently has ballot access in 13 states.
He says since penning his letter, “over 100 names” of
potential candidates have been tossed his way.
“Who’s someone you hear over and over?” I ask.
He flashes a grin. “I’m gonna duck you on that one.”
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