Dan Osborn, a Democrat-backed independent Senate candidate in Nebraska, has come under fire after leaked audio surfaced of him mocking supporters of President Trump.
“Billy Bob in f—king Red Cloud, Nebraska, who lives next to the f—king Trump store as you pull into town and is waving the flag, all he knows is that he’s on the winning team,” Osborn sneered in the recording. “It’s really that simple.”
“That’s why [Trump’s] been so effective,” the red state Senate hopeful continued. “He’s been so effective at taking Billy Bob and his wife Mary Jane or Mary Jo and telling them, ‘Look, we’re winning, you’re on the winning team.’
“And that’s all they care about, because their lives probably suck so f—king bad.”
The recording is from a campaign-related event that took place early this summer, according to the Omaha World-Herald. The outlet obtained the audio on Wednesday and said it verified its authenticity with a person who participated in the conversation.
Osborn acknowledged the audio “sure sounds like me,” in an interview with CNN.
“I talk to a lot of Trump voters, and that’s not it,” he said, when asked if the recorded comments reflect how he actually feels about the president’s supporters.
“What I’m talking about, I’m talking about people are pissed off, people are disenfranchised, especially, and that’s what Trump captured in Nebraska,” Osborn continued. “He captured people who are angry about the political system, and Trump ran outside of that as an outsider.
“That’s what people like about Trump. It’s why I’m running again as an independent, running outside the political system.”
Osborn said the leaked audio sounds “out of character,” and he apologized “to those people that might be offended.”
On Thursday, incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) slammed Osborn, arguing that his comments demonstrate he “looks down” on Trump supporters in the state the president has carried in all three of his campaigns.
“I’ve been to Red Cloud. I’ve been to every corner of this state. The people Dan Osborn is mocking — calling them ‘Billy Bob’ and ‘Mary Jane,’ saying their lives ‘probably suck so f—— bad’ — are the hardest-working people in America,” Ricketts wrote on X.
“They don’t need a candidate who looks down on them,” the senator added. “They need a senator who fights for them every single day.”
Osborn did earn praise from far-left streamer Hasan Piker.
“He f—king cooked,” Piker said of the independent candidate’s leaked remarks.
A spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee quipped that the group would love to see Piker hit the campaign trail with Osborn.
“Hasan Piker clearly loves Democrat Dan, so we’re happy to arrange travel to Nebraska where Piker can campaign with his new best friend,” NRSC Regional Press Secretary Nick Puglia told The Post.
Osborn, an industrial mechanic, union leader and Navy veteran, has been endorsed by the Nebraska Democratic Party.
Cindy Burbank, who won the state’s Democratic Senate primary, withdrew from the race in July to make way for Osborn.
