Sasse: Alabama Senate race looks ‘crappy to me’

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse (Neb.) in a recent interview slammed the identity politics coming from GOP candidates like Roy Moore, saying the Senate race in Alabama looks “crappy.” 

During an interview with conservative Jonah Goldberg’s “The Remnant” podcast, Sasse described the surge as “white backlash grievance.”

“And it feels like the Republican candidate in Alabama is also, you know, not persuasive to lots of national politicians, but they just want the important stuff to be — to be power and politics,” Sasse said.

{mosads}“And we don’t know how to talk about what limited government and universal human dignity are about. And so I think we’re getting a new kind of identity politics — of kind of, white backlash grievance, which isn’t surprising that the right would echo the left. It isn’t surprising if you don’t have principles — and it feels like these parties don’t have a lot of principles. And the Alabama Senate race looks just that crappy to me.”

Sasse particularly criticized Moore over his reported comments in the past about Muslims, noting the U.S. Constitution specifies there is no religious litmus test to run for Congress.

“You can’t have people running for office—I don’t know the particulars of what Moore has said—but as it’s been reported, you can’t have people running for office saying that being a Muslim would be a disqualification for being in Congress. The Constitution is pretty dang clear about not having a religious litmus test,” Sasse said.

Moore, a controversial former judge who was removed from the bench in Alabama on two separate occasions, has come under fire during his Senate bid for provocative comments in the past. In one recently unearthed remark, Moore argued that the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide is “even worse” than the 19^th century Dred Scott decision that ruled African-Americans were not United States citizens, and therefore property.

Moore, who defeated Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) last month in the GOP primary runoff, will face off against Democratic nominee Doug Jones on Dec. 12 in the special election to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

–This report was updated at 12:44 p.m.