Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska announced Tuesday he will campaign with two of Donald Trump’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, just two days after he chastised Trump for his marital infidelities.
As part of an 18-tweet spree on Sunday night, Sasse asked Trump whether he has “repented” for his “many affairs w/ married women.”
“@realDonaldTrump Q4: You brag abt many affairs w/ married women. Have you repented? To harmed children & spouses? Do you think it matters?” Sasse asked Trump in a tweet that was retweeted more than 700 times.
The tweets came after Trump attended church services in Iowa on Sunday morning. Entering the final stretch in Iowa, where evangelicals are a key portion of the Republican primary electorate, Trump has played up his Christianity and turned to supporters like Jerry Falwell Jr. to boost his religious bona fides.
Trump engaged in a highly publicized affair with actress Marla Maples while he was married to his first wife, Ivana Trump, and has written about having relationships with married women.
“If I told the real stories of my experiences with women, often seemingly very happily married and important women, this book would be a guaranteed best-seller,” Trump wrote in his book “The Art of the Comeback.”
Trump also wrote in “Think Big and Kick Ass” that he’s been with married women: “Beautiful, famous, successful, married — I’ve had them all, secretly, the world’s biggest names.”
As Trump launched attacks in recent weeks against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton by raising former President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky and allegations of sexual abuse, Trump noted that his infidelities would also be “fair game.”
But Sasse is the only Republican to have raised the issue of Trump’s infidelities.
Asked Tuesday to respond to Sasse’s tweet concerning Trump’s marital infidelities, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz demurred, noting that he would remain focused on the issues even though Trump has engaged in personal attacks.
The brunt of Sasse’s tweets on Sunday directed at Trump focused on Trump’s changing positions on a series of issues from gun control to health care reform and questioned Trump’s commitment to the Constitution.
Sasse announced Tuesday he would campaign with Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and possibly other GOP presidential candidates — but not Trump.
“We are in a moment of constitutional crisis. America already has one post-constituional party; we don’t need another,” Sasse said in the statement. “I am not endorsing any candidate — I am urging conservatives to hold every candidate accountable to keeping their word so that we uphold the Constitution’s system of checks and balances.”
“I’m pro-Constitution and if that makes me anti-Trump, that’s Mr. Trump’s problem,” he said.