Nebraska's Sen. Ben Sasse says he won't vote for Donald Trump should he win the GOP presidential nominee, and asserts "conservatives will need to find a third option."
In a lengthy
post on Facebook Sunday night, the freshman conservative lawmaker says he's "frustrated and saddened . . . about what's happening to our country," but decries "Trump's relentless focus on dividing Americans, and on tearing down rather than building back up this glorious nation."
And he took to Twitter as well to declare he'd support neither Trump nor Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton:
Instead, Sasse said, a "conservation option" would be a third "constitutionalist" candidate:
Other conservative commentators have made similar declarations in recent weeks, but Sasse became the highest profile elected Republican official to declare that he would not support Trump,
The Washington Post reports.
His stance comes ahead of the 11-state ballot of Super Tuesday, which includes a cluster of primaries in conservative southern states, the Post notes.
In his Facebook post, Sasse charges Trump is "much like" President Barack Obama in his alleged lack of understanding of the Constitution.
"The law is king, and the people are boss," he writes, "But have you noticed how Mr. Trump uses the word 'reign' — like he thinks he's running for king? It's creepy, actually.
"Nebraskans are not looking for a king. We yearn instead for the recovery of a constitutional republic."
He also asserts that "politics is not about creating heaven on earth," but about "preserving a framework for ordered liberty — so that free people can find meaning and happiness not in politics, but in their families, their neighborhoods, their work."
"The president's job is not about just mindlessly shouting the word 'strong,'" he adds, saying "the president's core calling is to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.'"
He then listed nine Trump quotes or positions that he finds run counter to that premise.
"If Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee, my expectation is that I will look for some third candidate — a conservative option, a constitutionalist," he writes. Adding, "I suspect I am far from alone."
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