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Dan Osborn, the independent challenging Sen. Pete Ricketts in Nebraska, acknowledged on CNN this week that leaked audio disparaging Trump supporters in his own state appears to be him.
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Shop NowThe recording, obtained by the Omaha World-Herald, captures a voice saying of rural Nebraskans who back the president that “their lives probably suck so f—ing bad.” The speaker argues they support Trump because “he’s on the winning team” rather than out of any grasp of his policies, and names “Billy Bob in f—ing Red Cloud, Nebraska” as an illustration.
Asked about it on air, Osborn did not dispute the voice, stating, “It sure sounds like me,” he said, while calling the remarks out of character and saying he did not recall the context.
He offered a conditional apology: “if somebody was offended by this, certainly I would apologize to those people that might be offended.”
He then tried to recast the comments as a point about economic hardship rather than contempt, arguing he had been describing voters who feel disenfranchised, and attributing the language to frustration. “Sometimes when you’re angry you say some things,” he said.
Ricketts, the incumbent Republican, moved quickly. “The people Dan Osborn is mocking are the hardest working people in America,” he said. “They don’t need a candidate who looks down on them.”
The episode is not the first of its kind in the race. Fox News reported that earlier leaked audio caught Osborn discussing a strategy of courting Republican voters while playing down progressive positions — a line of attack Ricketts has pressed against a candidate running without a party label.
Fox also reported that Osborn’s campaign has drawn significant money from left-leaning organizations and donors despite his independent designation, and that he has supported Democratic campaigns in the past.
Osborn is not a senator and has never held the seat. He is challenging Ricketts, who holds it now, and his pitch has rested on presenting himself as an outsider unattached to either party in a state Trump carried comfortably.
Neither the date of the recording nor the circumstances in which the World-Herald obtained it were reported, and the article does not include polling for the race or any indication of how the audio has landed with Nebraska voters.
What is established is narrower: the candidate says the voice sounds like his, has apologized to anyone offended, and has not disavowed the recording itself.
