‘The Republic Got Dumber Because of That Tweet’: Ben Sasse Chides Chris Murphy on Senate Floor for ‘Twitter Self-Pleasuring’

Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Ben Sasse (R-NE) engaged in a lengthy and spirited back-and-forth on the Senate floor Thursday that centered on a tweet the former sent earlier in the day.

Murphy name-checked nine Republican senators who Murphy said had demanded President Joe Biden do more too help Ukraine fight Russia, but who voted against a $12 billion aid package for the country.

However, the aid was not a standalone provision. It was part of a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill that will fund the federal government until September.

Sasse took exception to the tweet in the Senate chamber. He expressed his support for sending Ukraine military aid, but explained he voted against the bill because it contained other spending he opposed. As he spoke, a printed out an enlarged copy of Murphy’s tweet appeared next to him under the words “Full-Time Tribal Hackery.”

Later, when it was Murphy’s turn to speak, he responded to Sasse’s remarks.

“I got the chance to hear some of Senator Sasse’s remarks,” he began. “I noted the floor chart with my name on it, accusing me of what he called ‘tribal hackery.’ I’m not exactly sure what the rules of the Senate are. I’m not sure that that is becoming of the United States Senate, to use those terms about fellow members.”

Murphy went on say that Sasse “laid out a very true statement in which a small percentage of the overall budget is dedicated to Ukraine aid. That is, of course, true. But the reason why I find it concerning that members of the Senate – who I take their word for it, are genuinely interested in getting help to the people of Ukraine – are then voting against the budget that delivers it.”

He said this “speaks to a broader problem in the Senate today, which is a lack of interest in compromise, a lack of interest in finding a result, a fealty to the perfect and an antagonism to the good.”

Sasse interrupted to ask if Murphy would be willing to yield the floor.

“I was going to try to respond to your critique,” Murphy replied. ” But I’m happy to yield at this point.”

That led to the following informal exchange in which exchange the Senators addressed their remarks to each other, rather than the presiding officer. Furthermore, this may be the first time in history a senator has directly addressed another senator as “dude” on the floor.

SASSE: Let me see if I understand what you just said. So eight-tenths of 1% of the bill passed in the middle of the night last week is about Ukrainian aid. Do you believe that the people that voted against it voted against it because they were against Ukrainian aid?

MURPHY: So every one of us approaches a big–

SASSE: I’m asking a really simple question. Do you think a single person that your Twitter self-pleasuring was for, do you think that a single person that voted against it, voted against it because they were against Ukrainian aid?

MURPHY: Absolutely not.

SASSE: So then what’s the point of the tweet?

MURPHY: The point is this. It’s that the only way this place passes legislation is compromise, is voting on pieces of legislation that have in it–

SASSE: Where are the pieces, dude? It’s $1.5 trillion.

PRESIDING OFFICER: Senators. I ask the senators to direct their questioning to the president and give the other senators the decorum to respond.

Murphy reiterated the need “to find a path to compromise and what I’ve found over the time that I’ve been here is that there is a pathway to getting things done that generally involves 90% to 100% of Democrats and a small slice of Republicans. It is increasingly hard to find compromise that involves more than 10 or 15 Republicans.”

Sasse agreed with this particular assessment, but dinged Murphy for having “misrepresented why some people who voted against” the omnibus bill.

“But the real thing we’re talking about is grandstanding,” Sasse continued, doubling back to Murphy’s tweet. “There’s not a person on Earth who’s persuaded by that kind of tweet. You didn’t move anybody. You’re doing fan service for a subset of people who like Chris Murphy. I get why some people would like things that you stand for and advocate for. I get it.”

“But there’s not a person who disagreed with you who’s moved because of a tweet like that, There’s not an uninformed American who became informed, but there is a subset of the people who already like you that you got to grandstand for. That’s all that happened with that tweet. The republic got dumber because of that tweet. Nobody learned anything.”

Murphy reclaimed his time and the exchange ultimately ended with Sasse thanking “Chris” for his willingness to debate.

Watch above via CSPAN-2.