War of words in Nebraska’s Fischer-Osborne U.S. Senate race
OMAHA — Accusations swirled Monday in Nebraska’s most competitive U.S. Senate race, including a campaign threatening legal action over a campaign ad and a report of “Hitler Youth” rhetoric.
Nebraska independent candidate Dan Osborn’s campaign has sent a cease and desist letter to an outside group supporting U.S. Sen. Deb Fee, R-Nebraska Deb Fischer advertises.
In a letter to the Fisher campaign and Heartland Resurgence, the Osborne campaign called for three ads to be corrected or withdrawn.
The letters claimed that the ads made “false and defamatory statements about Mr Osborne” and that at least one of the ads falsely attributed inaccurate statements to him to political website Semafor.
“These ads are categorically false and maliciously distributed with the intent to mislead the public and damage Mr. Osborne’s reputation,” Osborne’s campaign manager Evan Schmetz wrote.
New York Post reports
Also on Monday, “New York Post” reports Osborne said in a taped call to donors that Fischer “never had any competition, so her staff and her campaign were a bunch of Hitler Youth boys.”
Osborne later told The Washington Post that he was “a little harsh” and that he wished he could “take that back.” He told Nebraska reporters on Monday that he owed Fisher’s staff an apology.
Schmetz claimed that the three ads were placed with “actual malice” as part of the higher standard that public figures must prove when alleging defamation.
Derek Oden, Fisher’s campaign spokesman, criticized Osbourne for trying to “change the conversation” by sending a cease-and-desist letter on Monday.
“Unfortunately for Dan, he couldn’t change his record,” Oden said.
U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Nebraska.
Advertisement fight details
The letter complained about three different ads.
One of the ads, taken from Fischer Referring to Osborne’s interview with news website Semafor, Osborne said in the interview that Congress’s immigration solution should include granting legal status to people who have lived in the country for decades.
“It’s time to put them on Social Security,” he told Semafor.
Fisher’s ad described the workers as “illegal immigrants” and suggested Osborne said they should receive Social Security, which the ad deemed insulting to Nebraska’s seniors.
Fisher’s campaign said the immigration ad was genuine. Osborne’s campaign said he meant these immigrants should be able to benefit from the money they already had taken out of their paychecks.
Dan Osborne, Independent
party affiliation
Another ad supporting Fisher-Price via Heartland Resurgence Describing Osborne as “another liberal Democrat.” State voting records show Osborne has been registered as an independent in Douglas County since at least 2004.
Fisher’s campaign noted that Osborne had previously been interviewed by The New York Times and other outlets, and he or people in his camp reportedly told them that he was a former Democrat.
Osborne has previously said he personally leaned Democratic before 2016, but like many in labor organizations, he welcomes the Republican Party’s greater openness to union members.
third adArticles from the Fisher campaign argued that Osborne supports “abortion up to the moment of birth.” Osborne has yet to publicly spell out which restrictions he would support.
Osborne’s campaign said Monday that he supports Congress passing a law that codifies the abortion rights in Roe v. Wade nationally and leaves any specific restrictions up to the states.
This criticism from Republicans has become more common in federal and state races when Democratic candidates have not specified the abortion restrictions they would support.
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