Sasse: GOP knows it well that Trump lost the elections
Sen. Ben Sasse, a conservative Nebraska Republican who has voted overwhelmingly for Trump's agenda but has separated from the president himself, penned a lengthy and detailed post on his Facebook page spelling out why Joe Biden won the election and why it's foolish to try to challenge those results.
In his missive, Sasse dubbed efforts to challenge the Electoral College vote tally on Jan. 6 "a dangerous ploy" and said disappointment over the results wasn't a justification for overturning an election even Trump administration officials said was fair and free from fraud.
"If you make big claims, you had better have the evidence. But the president doesn't and neither do the institutional arsonist members of Congress who will object to the Electoral College vote," Sasse wrote.
"Let's be clear what is happening here: We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there's a quick way to tap into the president's populist base without doing any real, long-term damage. But they're wrong – and this issue is bigger than anyone's personal ambitions. Adults don't point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government."
Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, on Wednesday announced plans to challenge the vote count next Wednesday on the Hill. Congress certifies the Electoral College results in what is typically a pro forma move, but Hawley says he will try to thwart it.
The move will not succeed: Not enough senators are willing to join his effort, and the Democratic-controlled House would surely stop it. But Hawley's tactics could drag out the process, adding another minor headache for a Biden transition already reporting that Trump's Department of Defense and Office of Management and Budget have been uncooperative with the handover of power.
In his Facebook post, Sasse notes that his constituents might be skeptical of his position, since he did not vote for Trump. Sasse says he wrote in Vice President Mike Pence for president in both 2016 and 2020. So he included detailed analyses from a pro-Trump National Review writer about what happened in each battleground state Trump lost and why there is not evidence of widespread fraud.
Disappointment over the results is no basis for unfounded allegations of fraud or attacks against state officials and judges, Sasse wrote.
"I can't simply allege that the College Football Playoff Selection Committee is 'on the take' because they didn't send the Cornhuskers to the Rose Bowl, and then – after I fail to show evidence that anyone on the Selection Committee is corrupt – argue that we need to investigate because of these pervasive 'allegations' of corruption," the Nebraska lawmaker said.
"We have good reason to think this year's election was fair, secure, and law-abiding. That's not to say it was flawless. But there is no evidentiary basis for distrusting our elections altogether, or for concluding that the results do not reflect the ballots that our fellow citizens actually cast."
By Thursday morning, the senator's opus had attracted nearly 2,000 comments, ranging from laudatory thank yous to derisive remarks that "they got to you" or that Sasse is a "Rhino" – a misspelling of "RINO," or "Republican in Name Only."
Sasse said he is far from alone, noting that his GOP colleagues believe Biden won but are nervous about alienating Trump supporters.
"When we talk in private, I haven't heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent – not one. Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will 'look' to President Trump's most ardent supporters," – a concern Sasse made clear he will not allow to silence him.
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