On Sunday morning, Republican Senator Ben Sasse went on ABC’s This Week and criticized Donald Trump’s childish response to Judge James Robart’s decision to put a national halt on his now infamous travel ban.
After it was announced that Judge Robart had deemed Trump’s Executive Order unconstitutional, the President went after the “so-called judge” on Twitter, calling his decision “ridiculous” and promising that it “will be overturned.”
The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2017
In response to a question about Trump’s use of the term “so-called judge,” Sasse told host George Stephanopoulos:
‘I’ll be honest, I don’t understand language like that. We don’t have so-called judges. We don’t have so-called senators. We don’t have so-called presidents.’
‘We have people from three different branches of government who take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, and it’s important that we do better civics education for our kids. So we don’t have any so-called judges. We have real judges.’
Watch Sasse’s comments about Trump’s response to Judge Robart in the video below, available via Twitter.
Sen. Ben Sasse on Pres. Trump's attack on federal judge: "We don't have 'so-called' judges" https://t.co/rp1M0fQ7mA #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/ao04zEcdjE
— ABC News (@ABC) February 5, 2017
Although he doesn’t support the language Trump used in his tweet and was critical of him throughout his campaign, Senator Sasse has made it clear that he is not an opponent of everything the President has done in his first two weeks in office. Recently, Sasse has come out in support of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, and his nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.
Speaking about Trump choosing Gorsuch, Sasse said:
‘I think it was a very exciting pick. Gorsuch is the kind of guy that every American should be applauding on the court.’
The support for Gorsuch from the conservative Senator is understandable. However, his decision to back Betsy DeVos, someone whose knowledge and experience has been doubted by people on both sides of the aisle, is a bit more troubling. Sasse said about DeVos:
‘We need to make sure these schools are more effective in serving their local communities and their kids and the families in those districts.’
‘That accountability has ultimately got to come from reducing the regulatory burdens of people just filing paperwork for Washington D.C. and re-empowering those local districts and local families, and I think that’s what Mrs. DeVos is going to try to advance.’
Featured image is a screenshot from the video.