Trump says 'RINO' Ben Sasse has gone ‘rogue’ after Nebraska senator criticizes his Covid-19 executive orders
President Donald J Trump has accused Sen. Ben Sasse of being a "RINO" who has "gone rogue" after the Nebraska Republican slammed the White House over a series of executive orders aimed at providing assistance to Americans amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“RINO Ben Sasse, who needed my support and endorsement in order to get the Republican nomination for Senate from the GREAT State of Nebraska, has, now that he’s got it (Thank you President T), gone rogue, again,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “This foolishness plays right into the hands of the Radical Left Dems!”
RINO Ben Sasse, who needed my support and endorsement in order to get the Republican nomination for Senate from the GREAT State of Nebraska, has, now that he’s got it (Thank you President T), gone rogue, again. This foolishness plays right into the hands of the Radical Left Dems!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020
Trump remarks came after Sasse issued a critical statement in response to the president's announcement of four relief measures that overrode a breakdown in talks between the White House and congressional Democrats, who did not strike a deal on a new round of federal COVID-19 aid, Politico reported.
Trump declared in a fiery speech on Saturday he would pursue one executive order and three presidential memoranda to federal agencies, aimed at "cutting taxes for workers until the end of the year, extending unemployment benefits at a reduced rate, renewing a moratorium on evictions during the pandemic, and deferring student loan payments and interest until the end of the year," per the outlet.
Sasse, despite consistently voting in favor of the White House's legislative decisions, joined with lawmakers on the other side of the aisle to question the legality of the president's actions. “The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop,” Sasse said Saturday night. “President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA, and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law. Under the Constitution, that power belongs to the American people acting through their members of Congress.”
Trump has attacked several members of his own party on social media in recent months. The commander-in-chief targeted Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania in July after they criticized his decision to commute the sentence of his longtime political adviser and loyalist Roger Stone.
Just days later, Trump railed against Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican. Meanwhile, several of her conservative colleagues also criticized her saying she hadn't been "sufficiently supportive of the White House agenda."
That said, Sasse has sparred with Trump ever since he became a frontrunner in the 2016 Republican primaries. In May 2017, Sasse told Politico that the new president “comes out of a reality TV world,” and that he had “lots of anxiety about whether or not that kind of world is really what we want for our kids.”
Sasse also lashed out at Trump in June when protesters outside the White House were forcibly dispersed so the president could safely walk to a nearby church and pose with the Bible in front of the press. “There is a fundamental — a constitutional — right to protest, and I’m against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop,” Sasse said at the time.