WASHINGTON — Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., launched a blistering attack on President Donald Trump and his leadership this week while speaking to constituents, warning that there would be a "Republican bloodbath" in the Senate if Trump loses the White House.
During a telephone town hall, a constituent asked Sasse about his relationship with the president and why he has to criticize him so much, according to an audio clip that was first obtained by The Washington Examiner and has been posted on YouTube.
"I'm not at all apologetic for having fought for my values against his in places where I think his are deficient, not just for a Republican but for an American," said Sasse, who then began ticking off a number of things he dislikes about the president. "The way he kisses dictators' butts. I mean, the way he ignores that the Uighurs 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, spends like a drunken sailor," Sasse continued, adding that Trump "mocks evangelicals behind closed doors...has treated the presidency like a business opportunity" and has "flirted with white supremacists."
Sasse said that Trump is "driving the country further to the left" and he said it "looks likely that he’s going to take the Senate down with him" if he loses the White House in the upcoming election.
"I'm now looking at the possibility of a Republican bloodbath in the Senate, and that's why I've never been on the Trump train," he said.
Sasse warned that if Democrats take control over the Senate "there’s a very good chance" that within a decade, the U.S. will look like Venezuela with dozens of members on the Supreme Court.
"The debate is not going to be, ‘Ben Sasse, why were you so mean to Donald Trump?'" Sasse said. "It's going to be, 'What the heck were any of us thinking, that selling a TV-obsessed, narcissistic individual to the American people was a good idea?'"
Trump shot back on Twitter Saturday morning, writing that Sasse is a person "who truly doesn’t have what it takes to be great."
"Little Ben is a liability to the Republican Party, and an embarrassment to the Great State of Nebraska. Other than that, he’s just a wonderful guy!," Trump tweeted.
