‘The reality is that [Trump], careened from curb to curb. First, he ignored COVID. And then he went into full economic shutdown mode,‘ – Sen. Ben Sasse [R-Neb]

GOP senator Ben Sasse accused Donald Trump of ‘kiss[ing] dictators’ butts, and sell[ing] out our allies and mock[ing] evangelicals,’ in leaked phone call

The Nebraska senator on the call slams how Trump treats women while pointing out that he’s ‘flirted with white supremacists’

Precise date of the call is unknown, but the covid reference gives a timeframe as Sasse says Trump ‘careened from curb to curb’ on the pandemic

Sasse tossed softball questions to Amy Coney Barrett in her confirmation hearing, asking why the nation has a Bill of Rights

Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse has severely criticized President Donald Trump for his handling of the coronavirus, lampooning his party’s flagbearer because he ‘kisses dictators’ butts’ in a newly revealed audio recording.
Sasse tears into the president in recorded comments from an apparent conference call with his constituents, the Washington Examiner reports. Sasse can be heard accusing Trump of having ‘ignored’ the coronavirus as it spread through the nation.
responding to questions at the townhall, he goes further to accuse Trump of having ‘treated the presidency like a business opportunity.’ 

Some of his most searing comments come on the coronavirus – where polls show Trump is struggling against rival Joe Biden, with daily infections above 50,000 and deaths now approach 220,000. 
‘But the reality is that he careened from curb to curb. First, he ignored COVID. And then he went into full economic shutdown mode,’ said Sasse, who is expected to win his up for reelection this fall.
‘He was the one who said 10 to 14 days of shutdown would fix this. And that was always wrong. I mean, and so I don’t think the way he’s lead through COVID has been reasonable or responsible, or right.’

Sasse slammed on Trump on foreign policy as well as domestic politics – even saying his party’s leader has ‘flirted’ with white supremacists.  
‘The way he kisses dictators’ butts. I mean, the way he ignores the Uighurs, our literal concentration camps in Xinjiang. Right now, he hasn’t lifted a finger on behalf of the Hong-Kongers,’ Sasse said. 

‘The United States now regularly sells out our allies under his leadership, the way he treats women, spends like a drunken sailor,’ Sasse says.
‘ The ways I criticize President Obama for that kind of spending; I’ve criticized President Trump for as well.
‘He mocks evangelicals behind closed doors’ casting doubt on the romance with the evangelical right who are some of Trump’s most ardent supporters.
Perhaps the harshest line is when the Nebraska senator waded into the first family’s attitude towards the highest office in the country: ‘His family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity.’

President Trump fails to condemn white supremacist groups during first presidential debate

The report gives no exact time for the call, although the coronavirus comments place it this year. 
‘He’s flirted with white supremacists,’ Sasse adds.
Trump took fire for failing during the first presidential debate to denounce white supremacist groups like the Boogaloo Boys who he infamously asked to to ‘Stand back and stand down’, from the debate podium.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse questions Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Barrett

Sasse’s office didn’t deny the comments, telling the paper he believes in the importance of keeping the Senate, calling it ‘ten times more important’ than keeping the White House. 
The remarks from Sasse put distance between him and Trump, even as he towed a party line in backing up Judge Amy Coney Barrett at Judiciary Committee hearings. He tossed softball questions, including one asking why the nation had a Bill of Rights, even as Democrats fumed at taking up the nomination so close to an election.
He also asked her to name the ‘five freedoms’ expressed in the First Amendment, although she only recalled freedom of press, speech, religion, and assembly. ‘Redress or protest,’ he told her when she asked for help remembering.

On the call, Sasse was responding to a constituent who asked him: ” Why do you have to criticize [Trump] so much?” 
He also hit Trump for ‘stupid political obsessions’ that could harm the party ‘if young people become permanent Democrats because they’ve just been repulsed by the obsessive nature of our politics, or if women who were willing to still vote with the Republican Party in 2016 decide that they need to turn away from this party permanently in the future.’
His comments emerged after even reliably conservative Republican incumbents like Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) have put distance between themselves and the president in public comments.