Most recently, we have learned that even Russian efforts to slaughter American troops in cold blood do not faze this president. Mr. Trump brushes off the information, evades responsibility and fails to take action — not even lodging a diplomatic protest. Now Mr. Putin knows he can kill Americans with impunity.

“I’ve been hearing from military families in Nebraska constantly for the last 36 hours, and they’re livid,” [Sasse] said. “This is a story about the targeting of American men and women in uniform. This is about putting crosshairs on the backs of people who are fighting for our freedom. This is not about short-term politics.” [emphasis added]

This is a double crack in the wall. Ben Sasse, a Republican up for re-election in a year when Trump is also on the ballot, ought to be kissing Trump’s …. to get his base to vote for him. Instead, when Bunker Boy tweeted Sunday night that the intel community hadn’t briefed him, Sasse wasn’t having any of it:

“Who knew what when? Did the commander in chief know? And if he didn’t, how in the hell didn’t he know?” he said.

Just as (even more?) significant is that military families, who are generally more conservative, go for “traditional family values” and have been one of Trump’s major bases of support, are screaming bloody murder over Trump’s letting Putin get away with real murder. Sasse sees the importance of that, too:

“I think that it should be clear that we are deadly serious about this topic because it’s a deadly serious topic. Most of the families that have contacted me are not the kinds of people who do the 24-hour news cycle,” he said.