GOP Sen. Hopeful Osborn: Memo Flap Being Used to Smear Him

Thirteen years ago Shane Osborn was piloting a U.S. Navy spy plane over China when it collided with a Chinese Navy airplane. Osborn made an emergency landing in China, was captured, then interrogated for 12 days before being released to U.S. custody.

Today Osborn is fighting to win the Republican primary for Nebraska's open seat in the U.S. Senate. His life came full circle this week when it was revealed that a memo he had been distributing that detailed the events in China was not issued by the U.S. Navy, though it was prepared to look as if it did. Instead, the memo was prepared for Osborn by a contact still in the Navy, according to the Omaha World-Herald. The Navy told the World-Herald it could not authenticate the document and so would not discuss it.

The former state treasurer said the attempt to discredit him wasn't surprising.

"This is politics," he told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV. "I'm proud of what my crew did. We followed directives and we saved lives."

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Should he weather the current controversy, Osborn is determined to combat Democratic policies he says are setting the country back decades.

"They simply think they know what's best for us, that American people aren't smart enough to make their own decisions when it comes to their healthcare, when it comes to their lives, regulatory environment, how they should save their money," Osborn said of Democrats.

"This is the difference between the Republican and Democratic Party, we believe in self-reliance and we don't want the government in our lives and this is a great example."

The White House's handling of foreign affairs particularly concerns Osborn.

"When you look at this President Obama and he's the worst at foreign policy since Jimmy Carter and it's setting us back decades," Osborn said. He said the situation in Ukraine could have been averted a long time ago before the U.S. got backed into potentially having to use its military.

"So what we should be doing is exporting liquefied natural gas over to Europe so they don't have a gun to their head with this pipeline and Putin's ability to shut it off. This is a problem," he said.

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