A senator who frequently considers leaving the Republican Party accused both the GOP and the Democratic Party on Sunday for not having a vision for the country.
“I probably think about it every morning when I wake up and figure out why am I flying away from Nebraska to go to D.C. this week. Are we going to get real stuff done?” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said during an interview with CNN of his thoughts about leaving his party and becoming an independent. “We should be focused on the long term, and I’d loved to see the party of Lincoln and Reagan get back to its roots.”
While he praised President Trump for “some good” achievements, such as the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Sasse said “there is a lot of chaos and a lot of reality TV circus, and that is a little bit different from a long term view.”
Sasse added that he had not been privy to any conversations about invoking the 25th Amendment against Trump, a claim made in the controversial anonymous opinion piece published by the New York Times on Wednesday. He urged the administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill to stop getting distracted by the “drama” of Omarosa Manigault Newman, Michael Cohen, or Paul Manafort, and instead divert their attention back to working on substantive issues such as cyberwarfare or enacting new ethics laws and regulations.
Sasse, a name floated as a possible Republican presidential contender, also said Sunday the chances of him running for the White House in 2020 were low.
“I think right now we spend way too much time talking about campaigning in this country and way too little time talking about governing,” he continued.
Sasse, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee, made headlines last Tuesday for condemning Senate Democrats during Kavanaugh’s heated confirmation hearing. “The question is: Does he have the character and temperament to do that?” the junior senator from Nebraska said of the federal appeals judge. “If you don’t think he does, vote no. But, if you think he does, stop the charades.”
[Opinion: Ben Sasse’s 15-minute civics lesson is the best part of the Kavanaugh hearing so far]
