Sasse rebuked by Nebraska Republican Party over impeachment vote

by Sarah Polus - 02/28/21 7:02 AM ET

The Nebraska Republican Party officially rebuked Sen. Ben Sasse Saturday over his vote in favor of impeaching former President Trump earlier this month, CNN reports.

The state GOP reportedly did not censure him, but made its disapproval over his actions clear, arguing that he wasn’t representing his constituents’ wishes.

“The Nebraska Republican Party Central Committee expresses its deep disappointment and sadness with respect to the service of Senator Ben Sasse and calls for an immediate readjustment whereby he represents the people of Nebraska to Washington and not Washington to the people of Nebraska,” the party’s resolution reads, according to CNN.

It went on to argue that Sasse’s criticism of Trump and support the former president’s impeachment trial worked to the advantage of Democrats, who used his comments “as justification for a truncated impeachment process that denied the President due process.”

“There are lots of good people involved in party activism and I care about them, but most Nebraskans don’t think politics should be about the weird worship of one dude,” Sasse said in response to the state GOP’s action, according to his spokesperson, James Wegmann.

Wegmann added that Sasse, who was previously rebuked in 2016, has “won far more votes and also earned more censures than anybody in Nebraska history, so maybe the two actually go hand in hand.”

On Feb. 13, the Republican Party of Louisiana censured Sen. Bill Cassidy over his vote to convict Trump. Two days later, the North Carolina Republican Party voted unanimously to censure Sen. Richard Burr.

Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Patrick Toomey has also been censured by GOP committees in several counties across the state, and lawmakers in Maine and Utah are debating taking formal action against Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Mitt Romney, respectively.

Trump was acquitted in a Senate trial after being impeached by the House over his role in the deadly siege by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol in January.