Golly, this guy certainly did locate his balls after he won his primary.

Here’s a five-minute truthbomb he assembled today in response to the news that his state party wants to formally censure him because Nebraska Trumpers are grumpy about him being mean to the president. (Really, that’s the complaint: “Senator Ben Sasse has persistently engaged in public acts of ridicule and calumny against President Donald J. Trump, through both the spoken and written word, questioning the president’s agenda, decisions, motives, and competency.”) Bear in mind, he hasn’t even voted to convict Trump yet at his impeachment trial. This appears to be a sort of … preemptive censure, scolding him for criticizing the ex-president and for voting with Democrats on the question of whether Trump’s trial is constitutional.

You can read the full resolution at NRO. There’s a little “rigged election” propaganda tucked in there just to make Sasse look that much better by contrast:

Whereas Senator Ben Sasse shows indifference to the factual evidence of illicit acts, as were committed during the 3 November 2020 election, including: affidavits from individuals who witnessed intimidation, irregularities and fraud in the submission and counting of ballots; malfeasance, committed by elected and appointed officials within the executive and judiciary branch of state governments — as occurred in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan – in violation of state election laws and / or constitutions, usurping the plenary power granted to state legislatures by the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Sec. 4, Clause 1, and Article 2, Clause 2) in determining the manner, time and place of elections, and the manner in choosing electors.

This perfectly sober and accurate comment was also singled out as objectionable for some reason:

Whereas, on 8 January 2021, in an interview with CBS This Morning, Senator Sasse stated: “The American people have been lied to, chiefly by Donald Trump, and lies have consequences, and those consequences are now found in five dead Americans, and a Capital building that’s in shambles. Legislators should not be aiding and abetting those kinds of lies. The president has disregarded his oath of office . . . The House, if they come together and have a process, I will definitely consider whatever articles they might move; because, as I’ve told you, I believe the president has disregarded his oath of office. He swore an oath to the American people to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. He acted against that. What he did was wicked;”

Sasse just won reelection by 36 points and ended up getting more votes than Trump did in his home state, a fact he’s careful to mention in the clip. He doesn’t care if his state party is mad at him, or rather that they’re pretending to be mad at him in order to appease Trump fans. His retort to them is simple: The only issue you have with me is that I don’t worship Trump. No one has any complaints about his voting record, which is pretty Trumpy, or thinks he’s “gone lib.” He’s just not in the cult and has very belatedly taken to working against it, and the state party has decided that criticizing the cult leader is a censurable offense. You’re the ones who have changed, he tells them at one point, not me. Which stings because it’s so obviously true.

“We’re going to have to choose between conservatism and madness,” he concludes. To which I say: Ben, I have bad news.

Exit question: This means he’s definitely voting to convict, right? He’s had two whiffs in the past when given a chance to vote against Trump in a big spot, first when he declined to oppose Trump’s re-appropriation of Pentagon funding for the border wall and later when he voted to acquit at the first impeachment trial. He’s talked verrrry tough lately. He has to be a yes to convict at the Senate trial. He’ll never be taken seriously again by his target audience if he isn’t.