Nebraska is a deep-red state; only 29% of the voters are registered as Democrats. Governor Ricketts is a Republican, both its senators, Fischer and Sasse, are Republicans. Sasse is up for reelection this fall, but fivethirtyeight.com gives him a 98% chance of winning. You would think Biden doesn’t stand a chance (except perhaps in the Omaha CD — Nebraska is one of two states that split their EV’s).
But tonight The Hill came out with this story about Sasse: GOP senator: Congress must find out what Trump knew of Russian bounties, and when
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) says Congress needs to get to the bottom of what President Trump was told about Russia offering bounties to Taliban militants to kill coalition troops in Afghanistan, calling for a “proportional response” from the U.S.
But here’s the part that got my attention:
“I’ve been hearing from military families in Nebraska constantly for the last 36 hours, and they’re livid,” [Sasse] said. “This is a story about the targeting of American men and women in uniform. This is about putting crosshairs on the backs of people who are fighting for our freedom. This is not about short-term politics.” [emphasis added]
This is a double crack in the wall. Ben Sasse, a Republican up for re-election in a year when Trump is also on the ballot, ought to be kissing Trump’s …. to get his base to vote for him. Instead, when Bunker Boy tweeted Sunday night that the intel community hadn’t briefed him, Sasse wasn’t having any of it:
“Who knew what when? Did the commander in chief know? And if he didn’t, how in the hell didn’t he know?” he said.
Just as (even more?) significant is that military families, who are generally more conservative, go for “traditional family values” and have been one of Trump’s major bases of support, are screaming bloody murder over Trump’s letting Putin get away with real murder. Sasse sees the importance of that, too:
“I think that it should be clear that we are deadly serious about this topic because it’s a deadly serious topic. Most of the families that have contacted me are not the kinds of people who do the 24-hour news cycle,” he said.
There don’t appear to have been any polls done in Nebraska in the last 30 days (not that I could find, anyway), probably because pollsters realize it’s solid Trump country. Well, maybe after tonight it’s not so solid anymore. And even if this doesn’t flip that state, this fury has to be reflected among military families all over the country.
Which is why I’ve decided to call this “Bountygate.”