Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol suggested Thursday that Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse could be an ideal independent conservative presidential candidate.
“We have two candidates who are viewed by considerable majorities in an unfavorable way,” Kristol said on MSNBC. Kristol is fervently in the “Never Trump” crowd of conservatives and he has been actively calling for a someone to mount a third party bid. (RELATED: Republican Senator Outlines Call For Third-Party Candidate)
Previously, the conservative writer had reached out to retired Marine General James Mattis to run for the presidency — Mattis declined.
“So maybe a politician is better, maybe it should someone who is a senior statesman type, but I think Ben Sasse. A young senator, conservative senator, but who’s really a thoughtful and independent minded conservative senator,” Kristol said. He added, “if he could launch, I think there’d a lot of money, a lot of operatives, legal services volunteered to get him on the ballot across the country.”
“Imagine a debate with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and someone like Ben Sasse. I think a lot of Americans could look up and say, ‘wait a second can’t we do better, we can do better than Hillary and Donald and what about Sasse? Or what about others like him?'” Kristol continued to say.
On Wednesday night. Sasse certainly didn’t quell rumors about the possibility of him running by writing on Facebook and Twitter that America “deserves better” than Clinton or Trump. His spokesman said Thursday that the Nebraska senator is “not interested.”
A run from Sasse would certainly take votes away from the Republican nominee, and likely help Hillary get elected, this does not dissuade Kristol. (RELATED: Meet The Clinton Republicans)
“Well fine, I’m not averse to stopping Donald Trump become president,” the conservative writer said.